Serenade of Water
by SpacePirate Khan
Summary: The dark side of a hero. The return of the Gerudo King. The beginning of the prophecy. And a forbidden romance between a Hylian Hero and a Zoran Princess. What's not to love? Finally Finished! [LinkRuto] Look for the sequel, Symphony of Apocalypse!
1. Chapter One The Hero and the Tomboy

Disclaimer;  
I do not own The Legend of Zelda.  
The plot is dang confusing, so I  
wouldn't know what t'do with it  
if I did.   
  
  
  
  
Author's Note:  
  
I was gonna write one with this pairing,  
but the more I thought about it the more  
confusing the plot was. Now, since at the  
end of Ocarina of Time Link was a kid again,  
I'm gonna leave him a kid and continue the  
plot of it. If you have a problem with it,  
tell someone who cares and don't flame me.  
Zelda/Link fans, don't flame me. Heck, don't  
flame me period. I've been roasted enough overb  
the years. This story only revolves around the  
plot of Ocarina of Time. If you like this  
pairing, hope you enjoy =)  
  
ADDED NOTE:  
Look, I'm glad you people feel like spending  
time to state your opinion. But it's annoying  
to hear people whine about the pairing, when  
even the Summary tells you who it is. If you  
don't like it, don't waste both yours and my  
time by reading/flaming it. ANd hopefully, the  
spacing will be FIXED this time...  
  
  
  
Elongated Summary:  
  
FF.Net has FAR TOO LITTLE of this pairing.  
I'm here to solve that problem. =)  
  
Link was brought back to the past by Zelda  
to keep Ganondorf from ever rising to power.  
And now our young hero has the chance to live  
his life the way he wanted. This tale will go  
through Link and Ruto's childhood together.  
But despite all this carefreeness, Ganondorf  
has fallen eerily quiet.... Enough rambling  
and stalling, you're probably sick of reading all  
this by now. On with the REAL reason you clicked  
here.   
  
  
((Note: In this story, Link and Ruto are both  
at the age of 13 to begin with, and both have  
a tendency to act immature around one another.))  
  
  
  
  
  
=][)Serenade of Water(][=  
  
  
  
  
Chapter One  
=The Hero and the Tomboy=  
  
  
  
  
Link looked around him, then at his hands and  
feet. He was young once more, and surprisingly,  
it felt good. The familiar sight of the Temple  
of Time was warming, but there was one sight  
he'd much rather see as he walked down the long  
hallway of the secluded temple, grabbing a precious  
stone he valued along the way.  
  
The young hero pulled out his ocarina and began  
to play the Serenade of Water, to visit a dear  
friend he felt very lucky to have.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
In moments, Link surfaced in the middle of the  
watery cavern and gazed in awe once more at the  
wonder that is Zora's Domain. He took a deep   
breath of the surprisingly fresh air in this place  
and paused to listen to the familiar, welcoming sound  
of tropical music, played by a Zora band from a  
part of the cave he's never been able to find. It  
was like coming home after fighting a war for years  
on end.  
  
  
The hylian hero climbed up out of the main pool  
and began his trek up to the throne room. It had  
been a little while since he'd been able to visit,  
so Link was going to surprise his dear friend.  
  
  
  
As he made it halfway up the long curving path,  
a white blur leapt out of the shadows beside him  
and pounced him into the water, giddy giggling  
echoing throughout the caves along with Link's  
startled cry of "Aaaaaahhhhhh!"   
((a/n: Anyone who's played the game knows what  
cry I'm talking about.))  
  
  
  
The pair plunged back into the crystal-clear waters  
of Zora's Domain, clinging to one another and surfacing  
moments later, now both of them laughing happily.   
  
  
"I knew you wouldn't forget about me!" squealed the  
young Zora princess, giving Link a quick peck on the  
cheek. The hylian hero grinned. "How could I forget  
you, Ruto?" he said. Ruto grinned widely, as well.  
"Stay right there, I got something for you!" she  
said happily, diving underwater towards a cavern  
Link was never quite able to reach.  
  
  
He floated there, looking around at a few other  
Zoras who were staring at him. They all seemed  
to be giving him very strange, confusing looks. He  
was bewildered at this, but quickly dismissed it  
as the pale blue-tinted girl surfaced in front of  
him. She pulled up a blue tunic, which seemed to  
be the perfect size for one his age. "Ta-Daaa!  
What do ya think?"  
  
Link took it and observed it closely... he felt  
the presense of some sort of magic within the  
material, which felt similar to that of the blue  
tunic he was given by Ruto's father as an adult  
seven years in the future, in a time that will  
never have to take place again.  
((a/n: Yes, I know that sentence broke every  
known law of verb tense. I even confused myself.))  
  
Something was different about this one, however.  
It felt tough, as if durable enough to withstand  
any blade, yet at the same time it was as smooth  
and soft as silk...  
  
  
"Well?" Ruto said impatiently, interrupting Link's  
train of thought. He grinned and hugged Ruto  
tightly. "It's great!" he exclaimed, much to  
the Zora girl's content.  
  
"You better like it, I made it myself." she said  
with a mock-serious tone of voice. Link blinked  
and stared at the tunic, then at Ruto. "You  
made this?" he asked, amazed.  
  
"Of coarse I made it. Is that so hard to believe?"  
she asked, seeming a bit offended. Link shook his  
head sheepishly. "N-No, of coarse not! Sorry,  
I didn't mean it like that..."  
  
  
Ruto smirked at that, finding it rather amusing.  
"Well the least you could do to make up for it  
is to try on your new tunic." she said in a  
feigned irritation.  
  
  
Link nodded and shed his old tunic, quickly  
slipping on the new one, which fit as perfectly  
as it looked like it would. It was as light as  
it felt, as well - as if one were wearing nothing  
but a sheet.   
  
Ruto grinned mischieviously. "Wanna give it a  
try?" she asked, though she left him no choice.  
All that could come out of Link's mouth was a  
startled cry as Ruto pounced him into the depths  
of Zora's Domain. Deeper the pair plunged, into the  
very same place the young Princess had retrieved  
the hand-made blue tunic.  
  
  
The hero decided to experiment, only hoping the young  
Zora princess had tailored the suit right. He felt the  
collar of the tunic hug his neck a bit tightly as  
water rushed through his nose as smooth as air, and  
best of all, no drowning. That was a big relief, as  
they had just entered an underwater tunnel near the  
bottom of the pool.  
  
  
  
He couldn't help but wonder where the young princess  
was taking him, though after what seemed like an hour,  
they finally resurfaced in a large air pocket, which  
had to have been the most beautiful place in the  
entire Zora domain. The walls around them consisted  
of a thick layer of some type of crystal, which   
brilliantly reflected light from the middle of the  
circular room, where a small prism jutted up, a single  
beam of light from the surface world pouring into it   
to radiate the entire area. The small cave itself was  
about twice the size of Link's small treehouse in  
the Kokiri villiage, and around a meter of water surrounded  
a white-sanded isle in the middle. Well-constructed  
seaweed and coral furniture littered the isle, not too much  
but enough to make for a cozy living space. The temperature  
of this room wasn't quite as chilly as the rest of Zora's  
Domain, either. The tropical zoran music was very soft  
now, nearly impossible to hear.  
  
  
Ruto smiled at Link's reaction - probably more out of  
humor for his gaping jaw than anything. She climbed out  
of the ring of water, her body glistening in the  
crystal light as she walked over to a red chair and sat  
down, turning to face Link.  
  
"I know I look good, but that's no reason to stare." Ruto  
joked, knocking Link back to his senses. His face reddened  
just a bit as he climbed out of the water. "Sorry, this  
place is just amazing. I've never seen anything like it." he  
said - unlike Ruto, who looked natural when covered in  
water, Link shared some resemblance to a drowned rat.  
  
  
The young hero took a seat next to Ruto in a blue chair.  
It was incredibly soft - he felt himself sink into it a  
bit as he sat down. "This is my secret room. No other  
Zora has ever even seen it." Ruto said proudly.   
  
"So this is sort of like having your own house?" Link  
asked, giving a more attentive look around the room.  
Ruto nodded. "And best of all, no one outside of  
this cave can hear us."  
Link blinked and looked at her. "Why would that be  
a problem?"  
  
"Because I need to talk to you about something my  
father can't understand." she said, leaning closer  
to Link. "A Gerudo man has been visiting our  
Domain for a couple of weeks now-"  
  
"Ganondorf?!" exclaimed Link.  
"No, not him. He rarely even passed by the Domain.  
I sensed evil in him, but this..."  
  
"You mean he's worse than Ganondorf?" Link  
asked. "That's hard to believe..."  
"It's the truth, though. I don't know why he's here, him  
and Father won't allow me to hear them discuss business."  
Ruto said with a sigh. "I don't trust him... he's  
plotting something, I'm sure of it."  
  
  
Link felt what many refer to as deja vu at this. It  
was just like when he and Zelda were talking about  
Ganondorf long ago. "Link, I need your help." Ruto  
said. "I fear for my people... he couldn't have good  
intentions for coming here."   
  
"I'll do whatever I can." said the Hylian hero as he  
began to ponder. "We'll have to figure out what he's  
planning first..."  
  
"Yeah... we can't just run up and beat the crap out  
of him." Ruto said. "That's for after we prove he's  
evil."   
  
They both chuckled a bit at this, before Link  
continued. "Isn't this place full of small tunnels?  
Surely one of them leads to a good, concealed opening  
to spy on the throne room." said Link.   
  
It was like turning on a lightswitch in Ruto's mind,  
for she was already plotting out every detail.  
  
"I used to play in many of those tunnels as a child...  
and I'm sure I remember one of them exiting into the  
Throne room. With a little luck..."  
  
  
  
She jumped up and pulled Link with her. "I've got  
an idea, let's go!"  
He had little chance to object even if he'd wanted  
to as he plunged into the cool waters of Zora's   
Domain once more. After a minute of simming, they  
resurfaced in the main room of the Domain, climbing  
up the nearby ladder and onto the main path. And  
once again, Link shared similarities with a  
drowned rat.  
  
  
As Ruto was about to take off running, (dragging  
Link with her of coarse) she as halted by an older  
male Zora. He had the pale white skin kin to nearly  
all Zoras, with red-tinted spikey fins. The man  
was rather tall, though he quickly closed the height  
difference as he kneeled down.  
  
  
"Hello, Princess. I don't believe I've seen you  
today." he said, then peeked around to look at the  
young blonde behind her. "Ah, and this must be the  
famous Link you've told me about!"  
  
  
The Zora extended a hand to him, which Link quickly  
shook - he knew Ruto wanted this to get done so she   
could continue her plans.   
  
"The name's Stryker." he said with a grin, revealing  
sharp, sharklike teeth.   
  
"Yes, yes, the whole Domain knows you. We're very  
busy right now." Ruto said, sounding impatient with  
the man. He feigned a look of insult.  
"You're too busy for your buddy Stryker?" he said,  
trying to sound like he was hurt. "Fine, just walk  
off. I'll get by somehow... I'm sure there's a nice  
rock somewhere to keep me company..."   
  
  
He seemed to have had practice at being over dramatic.  
  
  
"Yes, go find a nice rock to talk to. We'll find you  
later." said Ruto, grabbing Link's hand and dragging  
him away once more.  
  
  
She seemed to have had practice at ignoring his drama.  
  
  
  
Stryker laughed as they ran off, proving further his  
sympathy act was just that - an act. He strode off  
up the main path, watching the pair untill they  
vanished around the corner.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Link and Ruto climbed through the smaller, mostly  
ignored tunnels in Zora's Domain, and began searching  
for the one path Ruto found years ago which could lead   
them where they needed to be. "Are we just scouting  
to find the tunnel, or...?" Link asked as he followed  
Ruto.  
  
"Well, yes and no. We do need to know where it is, but  
the Gerudo man should be talking to my Father any minute  
now, which is why I'm in a hurry." Ruto explained as she  
turned left at another fork in the tunnel. Link nodded and  
they crawled along in silence the rest of the way, untill  
finally they came to the end of the right path.  
  
  
The young duo peeked their head out of the exit. They were  
high in the Throne Room, and a little to the left they could  
see Ruto's father, the King of the Zoras. And, just now  
kneeling in front of him, they noticed a young Gerudo man,  
possibly nineteen or twenty. He had short fiery red hair,  
a draping black cape, with black armor that had the  
Triforce in shining gold on the chest plate.  
  
  
"That's him, that's Garland." Ruto whispered.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
".. my liege, I mean no disrespect, but my business  
here has been drawn long enough." the Gerudo Prince  
said in a strong but gentle voice. "I have problems  
to deal with elsewhere, and I fear if we cannot come  
to a conclusion, the negotiations will have to come  
to a halt for the time being."  
  
"You know well the laws of our race, Garland." the  
King said firmly. Ruto sighed softly as he said  
those words. "A Zora could not marry a Gerudo. Why,  
if something of that sort was allowed, next thing  
you know we'd have Deku Scrubs and Gorons running  
wild in our Domain!"   
  
  
"He better not be trying to marry me off again!" the  
Zora princess whispered angrily.   
  
  
"I came to ensure, not only the Princess' future,  
but the future of your royal line." Garland said.  
"How about young Stryker? I know he wouldn't hurt  
the Princess. And a Zora to boot."  
  
  
"Eww!" Zora whispered in disgust. "Stryker's a  
funny guy, but... to be married to? Eww."  
  
  
  
"Yes, Stryker would be a suitable mate... It would  
be for the best for her, but-"  
  
"As long as I see the young Princess wed, I will be  
content that your royal bloodline will be preserved.  
And the Gerudo will be here for you if you ever need  
us." Garland said. As the King seemed to be pondering  
something, Garland looked straight up at Ruto and Link  
with a smirk. The two quickly ducked into the tunnel  
and out of sight.  
  
"D-Did he see us?" Link asked. Ruto shook her head.  
"I don't know.. he looked straight at us though..."  
  
  
"Garland, send someone to fetch the Princess to  
us. We need her opinion on the matter." the King  
said.  
  
"It'd be no trouble at all for me to go find her  
in person, my Liege. I haven't seen her in a while,  
and we've been such good friends."  
  
  
"Pch, yeah right." Ruto said, rolling her eyes.  
"We better head back..." Link said as Garland began  
to walk off. Ruto nodded and the two quickly scurried  
back through the tunnel.  
"I know a shortcut." Ruto said.  
"Where?" Link asked, looking around.  
"Right here!" she said, pouncing Link down into a  
split path and straight down over the main pool in  
the Domain, plunging both of them down several  
stories into the cool, refreshing water below.  
  
  
  
As they floated under the crystal waters of Zora's  
Domain, Ruto leaned over and whispered, "Pretend  
like we've just been swimming around."  
  
Link merely nodded, for though his tunic altered  
his body so that he could breathe under water,  
he was still unable to speak - all that would have  
come out was a gargling noise.  
  
  
Ruto looked up and didn't see Garland coming, so she  
decided to have some fun while they played innocent.  
The young princess grabbed Link's hat and shoved it  
down to cover his face.  
  
"Hey!" he yelled, pulling his cap back up to face  
a Zora princess with a playful mischievious grin.  
"Catch me if you can!" Ruto said as she dived into  
the pool. Link grinned and dove in after her, and  
the chase was on.   
  
  
Of coarse, Ruto was being easy on Link; she knew  
he'd never keep up if she swam as fast as she  
could. But at the same time, she toyed with him  
by making sure to swim just out of his reach.  
  
  
She looked back and smirked at the hero behind  
her. 'A pity he can't swim well... I'll have to  
fix that.' she thought to herself. Right as she  
turned to face the front again, she slammed  
into something and hit a dead stop.  
  
  
"Ahh! What the...!?" she squealed, looking around,  
before suddenly feeling the arms of a young   
Hylian surround her waist as Link pounced her  
in the water.  
  
  
As both surfaced, with Link clinging to Ruto  
and Ruto letting out cries of "No fair!!",  
the laughter of Stryker could be heard right  
next to them. Ruto glared at the Zora before  
her. "That was so unfair." she muttered at him.  
Link chuckled a bit.  
  
Stryker grinned. "Unfair? I was merely evening  
the odds, your Highness." he stated. "Besides,  
word is the King wishes to speak with you. Had  
I not stepped in, you two could've gone at it  
all day."  
  
  
The Princess nodded, then looked at Link.  
"Hmm, you can let go now." she said with a  
grin. Link blinked then loosened his arms to  
release her. "Sorry about that." he said with  
a sheepish grin. Stryker laughed and picked up the  
Princess, setting her on the path and jumping  
after her.   
  
Ruto turned to face Link as Stryker strode  
ahead of her a bit. "I'll be back in a minute,  
Link!" she called out, before running to catch up  
with her escort.  
  
  
Link swam up to a rock and sat down, then he  
noticed a Zora or two was staring at him once  
more. They quickly diverted their eyes once they  
realized he noticed them.  
  
  
He began to wonder why they stared at him like this.  
They never did before...  
'Why do you think? You're Hylian, they're Zoras.'  
called a voice in his head, a deep, calm, collected  
voice that sounded much like his own, only older.  
"But they were much more friendly than this  
before... Is it my tunic? Because I like my tunic." Link  
said in his head in response to the voice.  
'You and I, we both know what's going on.' the voice  
said. 'You and Ruto have spent a lot of time together.  
She always talks about you...'  
"But we're just friends, why would that matter?"  
'Just Friends? Just as well. We both know she will  
be wed to Stryker, as her Father's wishes.'  
"So?"  
'So? This bothers you, Link. And don't lie to yourself.  
I wouldn't be here if you weren't bothered.'  
  
Link tilted his head and continued his thoughts.   
"The only thing that bothers me is the fact that  
Ruto doesn't want to marry him."   
'That isn't the whole story... is it?'  
"Yes, it is."  
'Then answer yourself this question.'  
"What?"  
'Reach into the left pocket of your tunic.' said  
the amused voice.  
  
Link did so, and felt the object he'd taken from  
the Temple of Time.   
'Why do you hold on to it if you don' t care?'  
"Just shut up!"  
'Suit yourself.'  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Meanwhile, in the Throne Room, Ruto and Stryker were  
just entering. The Zora man kneeled in front of his  
King as Ruto merely crossed her arms.  
  
"Ruto, there's something very important we need  
to discuss." the King said. "You'll be fourteen this  
year, and it's about time you found a suitable mate  
to become engaged to." the King said. Ruto rolled  
her eyes; she was probably the only person in all  
of Hyrule who showed the Zora King little respect.  
  
  
"Ruto, are you even listening to me?"  
  
"Yes, father." she said. "And what if I've  
already found one?"  
  
  
Her father looked rather surprised at this, though  
Stryker looked even more stunned. Her father seemed  
to like the idea, however.  
  
"Who might this Zora be who's taken your affections?"  
the King said.   
"Er... I can't say." said the princess with an  
inward sigh.  
"Why not?"  
"Because... I'd rather it be a surprise." she  
said, pretty much lying. Fortunately, her father  
was somewhat dense, and she was somewhat good at  
keeping a straight face when lying. She couldn't  
tell him the truth... She knew she could easily  
have any Zora she wanted, but instead, she just  
had to fall in love with someone from another race...  
  
  
"Well, you realize of coarse you can't marry anyone  
without my consent. You'd have to get past me to  
do such, anyway." the King said. "I am relieved  
to find that you are maturing, however. Stryker  
and I have some things to discuss in private now,  
so go play with your young Hylian friend."  
  
Ruto nodded and dashed off, relieved to get away  
from the questioning. As soon as she was out of  
earshot, Stryker reached up to his face and seemed  
to be pulling it off.  
  
A brilliant light surrounded him, and when it  
faded, Garland could be seen with an enchanted  
Zora-face mask in his left hand. He looked up at  
the King. "Doesn't law say if she doesn't choose  
a suitor by her fourteenth birthday, that the King  
gains the authority to choose for her?" he asked.  
  
"Yes... but it would seem she has already chosen."  
  
"She isn't married yet, is she? She still has  
her Sapphire." Garland said. "Trust me, I want what's  
best for our precious Ruto, for your wonderful  
kingdom. I'm willing to permanately fuse the Zora  
form to my being if need be."  
  
"This is a matter that takes a lot of time, and  
a lot of thought." the King said. "You may take  
your leave, Garland."  
  
  
The man nodded and began to walk back down the  
main ramp of the Zora domain. He looked down  
at Ruto and Link playing together, and scowled.  
"I bet I know who she's chosen... and I intend  
to rectify this mistake." he said, striding  
out of the Domain.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
[End Chapter]  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter Two Nocturne of Shadows

Disclaimer:  
I do not own The Legend of Zelda.  
ANd though Garland the Gerudo is  
an OC, he IS still a race of Zelda,  
and therefore I cannot copywrite'im,  
so I can't stop you from using him.  
Heck, I'd be honored! =P  
  
  
  
  
Author's Note:  
  
Here we go, Chapter Two. I had  
almost planned not to update for  
a while untill a Link/Zelda fan  
flamed. Funny thing, it actually  
inspired me to continue. So thank  
you for humoring me, Mr.Unsigned  
Reviewer =P   
And apologies for the "Poem style"  
writing, it looks better on Notepad.  
You should have seen it BEFORE I  
fixed it, it was friggin annoying...  
Never again will I upload a document without  
editing and copy/pasting it in Manager!  
And this chapter had to be delayed in updating,  
because I didn't want to take the short way out.  
I'm trying to make each chapter as long as  
I possibly can before posting. I'll give myself  
like ... a one week deadline. Sound good to  
you readers?

  
WARNING:  
The following chapter has a scene of  
horror, involving a few violent  
themes. If you're a kid, when you see  
-=-, skip to the next -=- and ignore  
everything in between, so you won't  
have to see it. If you wish to read it,  
you have been warned.  
  
  
  
  
  
=][)Serenade of Water(][=  
  
  
  
  
  
Chapter Two  
=Nocturne of Shadows=  
  
  
  
  
Night has fallen upon the land of  
Hyrule. In the distance, you could hear  
the sound of wolves howling, among other  
ambient noises, although near the entrance  
to Zora's Domain, all that could be heard  
was the raging waterfall hiding the cavern  
door.  
  
  
Coming out of the waterfall, a figure could  
be seen holding up a large shield as a  
makeshift umbrella as he walked out of the  
falls. The Zora Domain hadn't a place for him  
to stay, so the young hero was heading out  
to set up camp around Zora's River.  
  
  
Ruto had wanted to go camping with him, saying  
it'd be fun, but her father wouldn 't allow it.  
He said it was unsafe for her to exit Zora's  
Domain these days, with all the monsters roaming  
Hyrule.  
  
Link opened up his backpack and pulled out   
several supplies, then began putting together  
a tent. And doing a poor job of it.   
  
  
"Never gone camping, have you?" asked a familiar  
voice behind the Hylian hero. Link turned around  
and saw Ruto walking over to him from the waterfall.  
  
"Didn't the King say you shouldn't be out here?"  
said Link as his tent collapsed behind him. Ruto  
held back laughter as she crouched next to Link and  
began helping him pitch the tent. "When was the   
last time you saw me listen to my father?" she said  
with a smirk.  
  
"Good point." Link said as he did his best to help,  
though despite his adventuring, he never once  
set up a tent in his life. Though he did attempt  
it once or twice, but each time he tried, he ended  
up sleeping under a collapsed pile of sticks and  
sheets and strings.  
  
  
"Since I'm already out here, I think I'll bother  
you a while longer." Ruto said as she finished  
putting up the tent.   
"Fine by me." said Link as he began building a  
campfire, both of them unaware of a pair of  
crimson eyes shining through the bushes a bit  
further downstream...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Link and Ruto sat next to eachother beside  
the campfire as the night grew darker. Ruto seemed  
to have been taking advantage of this situiation  
to rant a little bit about what was happening.  
  
"I can't believe the nerve of my father, talking  
behind my back about who I'm going to marry." she  
said in disgust. "And my birthday is coming up  
in just a few days..."  
  
"Seriously?" Link said, surprised. "I better start  
gift hunting then!"  
"Link, this is serious!" she said, trying to  
sound annoyed. "We've gotta think of something."  
  
"Well, I can think of a number of things you  
could do." said Link. Ruto tilted her head.   
"I'm listening..."  
  
"For one, you could get married on the day of  
your birthday." Link suggested. Ruto pondered  
this idea for a moment or two, then sighed.  
"No, that wouldn't work... the laws of my   
kingdom wouldn't allow it." she said solemnly.  
  
"Well... secondly, you could let your father  
choose for you-"  
"When Death Mountain freezes over!" she  
exclaimed. "I'm NOT marrying some snotty  
prince! And I'm sure that's what he'd pick."  
  
"Hmm. Only other thing I can think of would  
be to run away." said Link. There was a moment  
of silence after this, before Ruto grinned. This  
was no ordinary grin, however. Link knew this  
wicked grin well. When she grinned like that,  
she was plotting something.  
  
  
The young Zora princess hugged Link tight.  
"Thanks, Link.. I know what I can do now." she  
said, before standing up and walking back towards  
the entrance of the Domain. Link blinked and  
turned to face her. "You're not thinking of running  
away, are you?"  
  
"You'll see." Ruto said as she leapt past the  
waterfall and into her kingdom. Link shrugged and  
sat down in front of the campfire once more. He  
knew which alternative she'd pick of the three...  
  
  
Link shivered a bit as he realized how cold it  
was outside tonight, as he slid a bit closer to  
the fire. The young hero slipped his hands into  
his pockets to keep them warm, running his fingers  
along the smooth surface of the sapphire in his  
tunic's pocket.  
  
  
'There you go, back to your precious stone.'  
called a familiar voice in the back of his head. Link  
sighed.  
"So? I just like the color blue." he replied.  
'And since you like the color, you must like the  
rock, as it shares said color. Am I correct?'  
"Well... yeah."  
'And following such logic, as our young Princess  
Ruto is blue, you theoretically MUST like her as well.'  
"No! I mean, yeah, she's one of my best friends, but-"  
'How many people are engaged to one who is merely  
a friend, Link?' the voice mocked.   
"I'm not really engaged to her... the law of her  
people says she'd never be able to marry me." he said.  
'Ah, so it is a matter of legal issues, not that you  
don't like her.. or, be it not too bold a statement...'  
"Just go away." he replied. "I want to be alone for  
a while."  
'Fine, get rid of your common sense. Even once I leave,  
though, you won't be alone.'  
"Huh?"  
'Look behind you, Link.'  
  
  
  
  
Link turned around towards his tent, and saw... nothing.  
Nothing but a big patch of thick darkness. He stared  
at the spot for a moment, and still, saw nothing. "Hrmph,  
nice try.." muttered the young Hylian in annoyance.   
Though as he turned to face the campfire once again, a  
pair of red eyes flashed open behind him, and began to  
draw closer...  
  
  
  
The foot of a creature made of pure shadow stepped into  
the light of the campfire as it stepped into view, its  
shining crimson eyes glaring at Link. The shadow raised  
a long black blade into the air, and it seemed to have  
the silhouette of a female gerudo guard... and right as  
it was about to bring its blade down upon Link's skull...  
  
  
  
  
The Hylian Hero swiftly rolled out of the way and pulled  
out a short, shiny blade known as the Kokiri Sword. "Guess  
that voice is useful for something after all." he said,  
readying his Hylian shield to go with the sword. The  
figure laughed in a distorted, icey, female voice, before  
leaping at Link in an attempt to impale his chest with her  
blade.  
  
  
Link rolled out of the way as the shadow slammed into the  
ground and pulled out his bow, stringing an arrow which began  
to brilliantly radiate a yellow aura. The Shadow turned to  
face him, and looked horrified as the arrow flew into its  
face, and in a flash of blinding light, the Shadow had  
disintegrated into thin air.  
  
  
Link smirked and put his bow back up. "Thirteen and I still  
got it." he said to himself as he sat down at the camp fire  
once more. This time, however, a dozen red eyes blinked open  
behind him.  
  
  
The boy shuddered, feeling another cold draft. The shadows  
moved close to him swiftly yet silently, each drawing a  
weapon and taking stance, all looking the same as the first.  
Link yawned and popped his neck and back, getting rather  
sleepy. "Guess I'd better get some rest.." he muttered to  
himself.  
  
The shadows closed their eyes shut quickly to hide them as  
Link stood up and calmly strode to the river as if there  
was no danger of anything whatsoever. He grabbed his old  
Deku shield and filled it with water, then walked back to the  
campfire and doused it out before putting the shield away   
once more. As he began to walk towards his tent, however,  
something tripped him, causing him to fall on his face.  
  
  
"What the heck?" he said as he tried to get up, but as  
soon as he attempted it, six pairs of red eyes shone  
brightly through the shadows once more. Before he even  
had the chance to draw his sword, two of them slammed  
their feet into his gut, sending him flying backwards  
into the river with a startled cry.  
  
  
  
He staggared up and pulled out his bow and arrows  
once more, and noticed a second too late as he  
readied his shot that a pair of eyes was missing.  
  
He let loose the arrow, nailing one of the shadows  
in the chest and vanquishing it, however another  
well-placed kick slammed our hero into the cliff  
wall beside the river.  
  
  
"What's your problem!?" he shouted, barely dodging  
a black blade which slammed into the rock wall where  
his neck was mere moments ago. Then, a split second  
later, a second blade slammed into his shoulder,  
effectively causing him to cry out in agony as a  
searing pain like none he had felt before tore  
through his body.  
  
"What'ss the mater, little boy?" the shadow who  
stabbed him hissed, drawing near as the other  
four stood back to watch the amusing scene of  
the young hero's death. "Go ahead.. sscream, as  
loud as you can..."  
  
She put her shadowy fingers on his face, clasping  
his cheeks together so tight he felt as if his  
jaw would break at any second. Her black skin was  
as cold as ice, and as she pulled her blade out  
of Link's shoulder and prepared the finishing   
blow, she let out a wicked, dry cackle.  
  
"No one can ssave you now..." she hissed   
sadistically.  
  
  
Right as the wicked shadow was about to deal  
the finishing blow, a familiar white blur  
slammed into the shadow, knocking it into the  
river. The 'white blur' stood in front of Link  
with a triumphant smirk as two Zora guards  
nailed the other shadows from behind. The  
zora in front of Link turned to face him as  
she slid his arm over her shoulders.  
  
"You shouldn't've tried to fight them on  
your own." Ruto said as she walked Link towards  
the entrance of the Domain.  
  
"Wait, we have to stop the-" Link started to  
say, but as he looked behind him, he noticed  
two other guards had joined in, and they had  
already annihalated one of the shadows.  
  
'Saved by a girl. Pitiful.' the voice in  
his head mocked with an echoing laughter. Link  
sighed, deciding to ignore his voice as he clutched  
his shoulder tight, the pain starting to get to  
him now. He could care less what his voice said,  
as his vision began to blur, the only thing assuring  
him he was still alive being the roaring of the  
waterfall, which swiftly faded into silence...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
-=-  
  
  
  
  
Link blinked his eyes open and looked around.  
A horrific sight filled his eyes. He was back in Hyrule  
Castle, in the courtyard. The grass was stained crimson,  
and the walls had blood splattered all over them. The  
windows had been shattered, and through them, the hallways  
were filled with flames.   
  
Around him, countless Hylian soldiers were lying on  
the ground, along with a few limbs. "Wh.. What's going   
on here...?" he said, stunned.   
'WHat do you think happened?' the all-familiar  
Voice in his Head said, sounding as annoyingly amused  
as ever.  
  
"Someone horrible killed them all... Ganondorf.." Link  
said as he walked through one of the broken windows. He  
began to slowly walk down the hallway, seeing a few things  
lying up against the walls, burning to a cinder - which  
appeared to be more incapacitated guards. He turned the  
corner and looked up at the throne, only to find the King  
with a pitch black sword stuck in his chest, the same  
look of the shadows who had assaulted him, though with a  
different shape.  
  
'Ganondorf couldn't have done it... he's been sealed  
in the Dark World, the Sacred Realm.' said the voice in his  
head. Link begain walking towards the Throne Room. "Who  
did all this, then..? Who's sword is that?"   
  
'I've got an idea of how to find out who did it.' the  
voice said. After a moment of silence, Link spoke up once  
more.   
"Well? What's your idea?"   
'Find the last man standing.' the voice said with a  
laugh. 'Obviously whoever's done this MUST still be  
alive...'  
  
  
Link nodded, then reached up to grab the sword. Then  
he gasped. His hand.. it was completely black. Black  
as a shadow.  
  
  
"WHat the...?" he said, pulling the sword out of the  
deceased king's chest. He turned and saw a mirror on the  
wall next to him, and saw just his normal reflection  
standing before him. Then he looked at his body. Completely  
shadow.  
  
"What's happening to me..?" he said, before staring at his  
normal self in the mirror. His reflection smirked at him  
cruelly.  
  
'You're becoming that which you hate...' said the  
reflection. 'The darkness has consumed you...'  
  
"What are you talking about!?" Link shouted.   
'You should give yourself up before you perform another  
massacre like this.'  
"What are you talking about? I didn't do any of  
this!"  
'It was your blade. Your stained hand. Your own sadistic  
mind.'  
  
"No! It wasn't me!"  
'You killed them. You killed them all.'  
"No!!" he yelled, using his sword to slash the mirror;  
however, there was no mirror. He fell through the hole in  
the wall into an identical hallway, and ended up slashing  
his 'reflection' instead of what he thought was a mirror.  
  
  
The reflection laughed psychotically as the world around  
Link began to melt into a pool of darkness. 'Wake up,  
Link..' it said as everything faded into shadow. 'Wake up..."   
  
  
  
-=-  
  
  
  
  
Link blinked his eyes open for the second time. The tropical  
music of the Zora band filled his ears, along with the soothing  
sound of running water. "Good, you're awake." said a male  
Zora nearby. "We can't tend to a patient's wounds if we don't  
know what's ailing him."  
  
The hylian groaned, and reached to his shoulder as he felt  
a sharp, icey pain in it. "Hurting again is it? Probably time  
to change your bandages."  
  
"How long have I been out?" Link asked, his eyes still adjusting  
to what was, to him, a blinding light above the open-roofed  
cavern he was in.   
"Just overnight, surprisingly. You're quite the tough one.  
It doesn't even look like you bled much." said the doctor  
as he began to unwrap the gauze around Link's shoulder.  
  
"Is.. everyone alright?" he said, still feeling sore from  
getting slammed around the previous night. The zora beside  
him nodded as he finished unwrapping the wound.  
  
  
"Oh, my. That's interesting." the doctor said as Link's eyes  
finally adjusted to the light. He looked out of the small  
room into the main area, hearing two people arguing as they  
drew closer.  
  
  
"... and it took your royal guards an hour to subdue the  
remaining shadows, I heard." said a familiar voice, which  
Link eventually recognized as Stryker. "Honestly, they  
could have invaded the Domain and taken us all in our  
sleep!"  
  
"Well, you certainly did little to help." retorted the  
voice of Ruto.   
"I was asleep!" Stryker exclaimed as the pair drew near  
the door. "Everyone in the domain was asleep except you  
and your Hylian friend!" As they rounded the corner and  
walked into the room, Link saw a sarcastic smirk cross  
Stryker's lips. "Just what WERE you two up to?"  
  
"We were just talking, you pervert." Ruto sighed, before  
she noticed Link's shoulder and gasped. "Is he going to  
be alright?" Where a bloody wound should have been, there  
was a certain darkness where the blood would have been,  
making the stab wound quite visable.  
  
  
"Well, other than a bit of pain I think he feels  
alright." said the doctor. Link nodded, and Ruto let out  
a sigh of relief, before her skin turned the faintest shade  
of pink around her cheeks.  
  
  
Link blinked, then realized he was without a shirt and  
quickly slipped the Ruto-made tunic on. Stryker laughed a  
bit at this, taking a seat in the doctor's stool.  
"Guess this means the young Hylian's doomed. Pity, that."   
Stryker said sarcastically.  
  
"Stryker, that's not funny!" Ruto scolded, taking a seat  
next to Link. "Besides, the doctor said he'd be fine."  
  
  
  
The doctor pulled out a bottle of some odd green balm,  
and handed it to the young Hylian. "This is for the   
pain, and I believe that darkness is an infection of  
some sort. It should cure that up as well."  
  
"Thanks." Link said, pocketing the bottle. The  
doctor walked over and stared at Stryker untill he  
got out of his stool, then took a seat. "Now, apply   
that balm once a night to your shoulder. And... I'll  
be honest, I've never seen anything like this before.  
But from the looks of things, it's nothing serious.  
If it gets worse, just come see me again."   
  
  
"Ten bucks says it gets worse." Stryker smirked.   
"Stryker, what is wrong with you today!?" Ruto said,  
standing up once more.  
"I'm just kidding, Princess!" protested Stryker. "I  
always joke around like this!"  
  
"You've been acting weird all day!" she said. "If  
I didn't know better, I'd say YOU sent those shadow...  
things.. last night!"  
  
"That's outrageous! Why would I send something that  
would endager the safety of every Zora in this cavern!?"  
  
"I don't know, why don't you tell me?"   
  
"Pch, whatever. I'll talk to you once you cool down." Stryker  
said, heading out the door. He held a hand up and waved   
backwards. "Late-"  
  
Suddenly a jar of those popsicle stick things doctors stick  
in your mouth thwacked the back of Stryker's head, courtesy  
of everyone's favorite tomboyish princess. Stryker rubbed the  
back of his now-sore head, but found it best just to walk away.  
  
  
"So uh ... how much for the medicine?" Link asked as he stood  
up out of the bed. The doctor chuckled.  
"Don't worry, the King took care of the fees for you as thanks   
for causing enough ruckuss to let us know there was a threat  
out there." the doctor said with a grin.   
  
Link grinned sheepishly. "Was I really that loud?" he asked,  
scratching the back of his neck a bit.  
"Uh-huh. That and those blinding flashes of light." the doctor  
said with another short laugh. "Have a good day, kid."  
  
"Thanks for everything, Doc!" Link said with a grin as he and  
Ruto walked out of the office.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
Link and Ruto began walking down the small pathway, down the  
sides of the cavern wall and headed back towards the main  
room of the Domain. "What were you and Stryker arguing about  
when you came up here?" Link asked.  
  
"I just started nagging him about not helping stop those  
shadows, just kidding really, and he took it personal." Ruto  
said with a bit of a chuckle. "It was funny, but Stryker  
has acted odd all day."  
  
"Yeah... maybe he's just in a bad mood?" Link shrugged.  
"Maybe, but I've never seen him in a bad mood untill  
today if that's the case." she said. "Anyway, I've been  
thinking about what you said last night."  
  
"You mean.. uh... the part about me stinking at putting  
up tents?" he said. Ruto shook her head.   
"No, your suggestions. I'll be fourteen tomorrow... which  
means if I don't do something, I'll have to get married  
to someone I don't even know. Or worse, Stryker!"  
  
"So.. you're going to find someone else?"  
"No," she said, before leaning in close to Link and  
whispering, "I'm going to run away. It's the only thing I  
can do."  
  
"If you do that, you could get hurt. There's a lot of vicious  
monsters out there in Hyrule, and-"  
  
"And that's why you're going to kidnap me." she said with  
a mischievious grin. "That way, we won't have to worry about  
those monsters. Besides, if I'm not mistaken, I saved your  
butt last night, and you owe me."  
  
"What if your father--" Link was about to ask, before Ruto  
stomped on his foot. Hard. "OW! What'd you do THAT for!?"  
  
He looked up and saw Stryker walking towards them, then  
realized how bad an idea it was to talk about this matter  
with other Zoras around.   
  
  
"Sorry about earlier, Princess. I don't know what came  
over me." Stryker said.  
"Go away Stryker, we're busy." Ruto said, dragging Link  
down the main ramp towards the big pool.   
"What's so busy that it can't involve your good ol'buddy  
Stryker?" he said. "I've seen you on your little stealth  
adventures, I can be sneaky, watch." said Stryker as his  
entire body turned a shade of stone grey, blending in  
perfectly with the pathway before turning back to normal.  
  
  
"We aren't sneaking around, stupid." said Ruto. "Come on,  
Link, let's go for a swim."  
  
Link nodded and hopped into the pool with the Zoran princess.  
"Hey, wait for me!" Stryker said, leaping in after them and  
hitting the water as soon as Link and Ruto resurfaced.  
Stryker came up a second later.  
  
"Stryker... Go... Away." demanded the young princess.   
"C'mon! Three heads are better than one!" protested Stryker.  
Link found it better just to let Ruto argue when she was  
in a bad mood.  
  
"Why are you acting so weird today? It's getting on my  
nerves!" Ruto said. "As the princess of this kingdom,  
I ORDER you to GO AWAY!"  
  
"Fine, fine, I know when I'm not wanted." Stryker said,  
trying to sound deeply hurt once more. "Just.. go on,  
frollick with your Hylian buddy and forget about old,  
useless, pathetic, annoying..."  
  
Stryker peeked over at Ruto, who seemed amused. "You..  
can stop me at any time now, you know."   
"I know." she smirked.   
  
Stryker sighed, sounding quite aggrivated, and swam  
off. "Finally.. Let's go, quick." Ruto said as she grabbed  
Link's wrist and dived under the pool, headed towards the  
crevace that lead to Ruto's secret room.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Link and Ruto surfaced in the Princess' room, and climbed  
onto the sandy island in the middle. It was blissfully quiet  
in here, a welcome silence taking the place of the commotion  
that filled the halls of the rest of the Domain.  
He noticed a seaweed-woven pack with some of Ruto's things  
next to the bed; obviously she'd been planning this all day.  
  
"Now where were we before we were rudely interrupted?" Ruto  
said, sitting down on her bed. Link sat down on a chair nearby.  
  
"I was just saying, what if your father sends out guards to  
get us?" he said. Ruto laughed.  
"My father is so slow, it'll likely be DAYS before he notices  
I'm missing." she said. "We'll have a good head start by then.  
You worry too much. So will you do it?"  
  
"Well, I know I'm not gonna win any argument with you." Link  
said with a chuckle. "Guess I'll do it, but we won't be coming  
back here any time soon..."  
  
"Lake Hylia has plenty of water... even the Kokiri villiage  
has plenty of water if we need to hide out." said Ruto. "So  
that won't be a problem. And you'd be better off in slightly  
drier conditions than this, as well, so it works out well for  
both of us."  
  
  
"And.. what if we get caught?" Link asked. Ruto smirked.  
"Well, I'm sure the great hero Link can't be held by a  
mere prison cell." she said. "And there's no way for me to be  
forced to marry anyone, because I don't have my sapphire  
any longer. Besides, there's no way we'll get caught."  
  
  
"Well... what do you suggest we do untill tonight?" Link  
asked. Ruto shrugged.  
"Hmm... Garland is supposed to be visiting my father again,  
wanna pull a prank on him?" Ruto said with an evil grin.  
"Sounds good to me." Link said with a matching expression, and  
they both took off towards the hundreds of small tunnels that  
littered Zora's Domain.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Meanwhile, in the Zora King's throne room...  
  
  
  
  
  
The Gerudo prince knelt before the king once more; he was in  
quite a bad mood, though he was well practiced in hiding it  
when needed. "My liege, have you come to a decision yet?" he  
asked after a moment or two. "The princess becomes fourteen  
tonight at midnight, therefore time has become short."  
  
"I don't want to force my daughter into anything she isn't  
sure of..." the King said. "Give her time. She's already said  
she found somebody."  
  
"I believe I already know who that somebody is, Sire." said  
the Gerudo prince. The King laughed a bit.  
"Is that so? By all means, tell me who."  
  
"I've noticed she's very fond of the young Hylian boy,  
my liege. I think it's him."  
  
"Preposterous!" the King said. "She knows the laws of the  
Zora, she would never-"  
  
"Do you remember what it's like, to be young, foolish and  
in love?" the Gerudo prince said. "The young Princess has  
forsaken the law, she's likely to run away sooner than she  
will be married off to anyone else, unless we stop her."  
  
"I don't think she'd do anything like that..." said the  
Zoran king. "I refuse to let my daughter be treated like  
a prisoner in her own kingdom."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
At that moment, Link and Ruto were crawling through two  
of the many small tunnels, and Ruto had emerged in a hole facing  
into the main room of the domain. She had a handful of   
water balloons, ready to drop on her unsuspecting pray which   
would soon be walking on the main path below. Of coarse,  
these were no ordinary water balloons...  
  
Meanwhile, Link had grabbed a long sturdy stick and was on a  
low tunnel, facing the same path and ready to trip the same  
victim as Ruto. The pair sat and wait as patiently as snipers,  
holding back laughter at the prank to come.  
  
  
And after what was likely a minute, the Gerudo prince  
stormed out of the throne room. As he marched down the large  
path leading out of the Domain, he felt something pop over  
his head, followed by a cold liquid running down his back.  
  
Garland looked at his arm, which was drenched in pink paint,  
before turning to glare up at where the balloon had fallen -  
only to be hit by a barrage of other balloons full of different  
colors of paint, getting drenched in every color of the rainbow.  
He yelled and staggared back, as Link extended the stick, tripping  
him and sending him tumbling into the main pool, cursing on the  
way down.  
  
  
  
Ruto jumped out of her tunnel onto the path, as Link crawled out  
of his. They stood up, looked at eachother a second, then busted  
out laughing as Garland came out of the water and stormed out  
of the Domain, mad as a hornet and as colorful as a clown.  
  
  
"Quick, let's go back to my place and hide out for a while." Ruto  
said, making a mad dash for her cave, with Link right behind her.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Night once again fell upon the land of Hyrule, as darkness  
consumed the Domain. All was silent other than the sounds of  
the waterfall in the main room and the ambient life outside  
the cavern. And had anyone been looking, they would have seen two  
dark figures quiety creeping out of the water and onto the  
ladder that led out of the main pool, the paler of the two  
wearing a small seaweed backpack.  
  
  
Ruto peeked her head over the ladder, and saw two Zoran guards  
standing by the entrance. She leaned down and whispered softly  
into Link's ear, "There's guards at the entrance..."   
  
"Let's take the shortcut to Hylia lake." Link whispered back. Ruto  
nodded, and they carefully slunk back into the water, swimming  
towards the tunnel that lead to Lake Hylia.  
  
  
  
  
They came out of the other side of the tunnel and surfaced  
at the edge of Lake Hylia, before swimming up to the beach.  
"Heh, clean getaway." Ruto said with a grin. "They didn't  
suspect a thing."  
  
"Now to whisk you away to my evil lair." Link said with  
a mock-evil laugh. Ruto laughed.  
"Ohh nooo!" she said, trying to sound like a damsel in distress.  
She began running away, with Link chasing after her as they ran  
towards Hyrule Field. Most unfortunately for our young princess,  
Link was quite a good runner. He pounced her to the ground,  
clinging to her tight.  
  
  
"There's no escape now!" he said, trying to sound evil. Ruto  
giggled a bit, before suddenly around ten spears surrounded  
them. They gulped, and looked up at ten zoran soldiers around  
them, slowly standing up.  
  
The Gerudo prince slowly walked up to the group, with all the  
paint from earlier washed off. He had a cruel smirk on his face.  
"I knew we couldn't trust a Hylian." said Garland. "I am only  
glad the Princess is unharmed. DETAIN HIM!"   
  
  
The guards grabbed Link and held his arms behind his back, keeping  
a spear pointed to his neck at all times.   
"He didn't do anything!" Ruto shouted. "I.. I wanted to run away!"  
  
"As expected," sighed the Gerudo, "the treacherous fiend has   
told her what to say. It's alright, Princess, he can't hurt you now.  
As for you...."  
  
  
Garland walked up to Link and kneed him hard in the gut. Link coughed  
and bent over in pain, before the soldiers jerked him back up straight.  
"Get this scum out of my sight."

[End Chapter]  
  
  
  
  
  
(A/n) Oh no! Poor Link is in baaaad trouble now! Will he make it?  
Will I ever finish Chapter 3? Find out when I get off m'lazy butt  
and write/update!!


	3. Chapter Three Partners in Crime

Disclaimer:  
I do not own the Legend of Zelda.  
If I did, I'd be having this story  
published with awesome illustrations  
and the like, because I'd be FILTHY  
STINKING RICH! Yeeeaaahh!!!!!!!!!!  
  
  
  
Author's Note:  
  
Uh oh. Poor Link is in trouble now. Everything  
was going so well for the young Hylian untill now,  
too. And what was the deal with those shadow things?   
Link has horrible luck, doesn't he?  
Anyway.  
It'll probably be a while till I finish. That's  
the downside to this story I suppose, but at   
3,000 words per chapter, atleast I have an excuse.  
I guess.   
...  
It woulda been done faster, but for some reason,   
Notepad is a piece of crap. I save, and I save,  
time and time again as I write, and somehow, just  
like a PSOne memory card, parts of it just vanish.  
Stupid thing ...  
  
And, uh, this chapter may become slightly confusing,  
for the POV will switch from character to character  
quite often. Thanks to all reviewers for your support,  
this story has been fun to write and reading your  
reviews makes me feel good =3 and Jared, thanks for  
writing, helped get me back to writing this chapter.  
And don't worry, they won't stay in the Domain forever.  
Or will they...  
Mwah hah hah hah hah!

  
=][)Serenade of Water(][=  
  
(Now with Indented Paragraphs!)   
  
  
  
  
Chapter Three  
=Partners in Crime=  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Link groaned as he was thrown into the slimy cavernous  
jail cell, iron bars slamming shut at the only visible  
way out to keep him from escaping. He'd been beaten up  
pretty bad on the way to the cell, but the main thing that  
was ailing him was his shoulder, most likely from getting  
hit there once or twice.   
  
  
A Zoran guard sat nearby to ensure no one tried anything  
funny, though at the moment Link was paralyzed in pain and  
no one else was around to try anything.  
  
  
'A fine mess you've gotten yourself into.' the voice in  
his head chuckled darkly, almost as clear as if it were  
standing right in front of him now.  
"I knew it was.. a bad idea.." Link muttered, too silent  
for the guard to hear. The voice laughed more at this.  
'Then why did you not stop her?'  
"Because..."  
'You loved every minute of it. The feel of being  
sinister, of kidnapping the young princess, even if it  
wasn't against her will.'  
  
"I did it to help her..." protested Link as he began  
to, slowly but surely, recover from his beating.  
'Yes, but that isn't the whole story, is it?'  
"Leave me.. alone..."  
'Better be careful, boy.'  
"Go.. away..."  
'Leave your heart too open to darkness, and you'll  
become consumed with it.'  
"Go away!"  
  
  
  
  
The guard looked at Link odd as he said that.   
"Kid, I have orders. Even if I didn't, we don't take  
kindly to criminals." the zora guard said. "I ain't  
goin' away."  
  
Link coughed and sat up, leaning against the wall, clutching  
his shoulder. A sharp pain still haunted his shoulder,  
but the icey feeling that once accompanied it now extended  
from it, going down his arm a little bit and around his  
chest. Link stretched the collar of his tunic to peek at  
his shoulder, then gasped and quickly closed it back. Everywhere  
he felt that coldness, his skin was covered in shadow as  
if the wound was pouring black blood.  
  
  
He reached in his tunic pockets, fishing around to find  
the medicine he'd been given. It was then he realized, much to  
his misfortune, everything he owned had been confinscated.   
"Great." he sighed to himself, before looking around the cell.  
He had to get out of here somehow...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Garland walked into the throne room to speak with the King once  
again. The prince knelt down, as usual, then looked up at him.   
The king stirred from his sleep and looked down at the Gerudo.  
"Garland? What are you doing here at this hour?"  
  
"My liege, a most horrible thing has happened tonight. I knew the  
hylian could not be trusted."  
  
"What are you talking about?" the King said, a bit groggily. The  
Gerudo prince looked as if a terrible tragedy had just taken place.  
  
"The Hylian delinquent attempted to kidnap the princess." Garland  
explained. THis definately seemed to have woken the king up.  
  
"WHAT!? Ruto has been kidnapped!?"  
  
"No, no, my king, ATTEMPTED. We apprehended the scum, and the  
Princess is back in Zora's Domain, unharmed." explained the Prince.  
  
The King breathed a large sigh of relief at these words. "Just so  
long as my daughter is safe ... Now please, let this old man get  
some rest."  
  
"As you wish, your highness." Garland said, bowing before turning to  
take his leave.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
As the night drew on, the guard sent to keep an eye on the Hylian  
prisoner sat down in his chair and pulled out a magazine. He peeked  
over the edge of the pages as if to ensure to himself that Link was  
still in his cell.  
  
At the moment, the 'kidnapper' was lying on his back in the small  
makeshift prison bed and staring at the ceiling. As the guard turned  
his attention back to his magazine, he heard a soft tune being hummed  
from the cell, which grew louder quite fast.  
  
  
The guard continued reading his magazine, trying to ignore the humming  
and turning the page every minute or so. He succeeded in tuning it out...  
for about ten minutes. "Will you quit it!?" the guard yelled.  
  
"Quit what?" Link asked in a monotone voice.  
  
"Quit that obnoxious humming!"  
  
"I thought that was you humming..." Link said, turning to look at the  
soldier, who looked very ticked off at the moment.  
  
"Why would I be humming? It drives me insane!" he said, picking up a  
mug from nearby and taking a gulp of the coffee in it. Link blinked,  
trying to figure out where the humming had come from.  
  
"What is that song, anyway?" the guard asked as he began looking at  
his magazine again.  
  
  
'Nocturne of Shadows, a personal favorite of mine.'  
  
  
"Nocturne of Shadows." Link replied, as realization hit him. Somehow -  
he couldn't explain how - but somehow, the source of that voice in his  
head was humming, and someone other than he himself could hear it. Or  
perhaps he was humming it, and merely going crazy.  
  
"Well quit humming and get some sleep." the guard said. "The King ain't  
decided what to do with you yet, you'd probably be dead now if you weren't  
a friend of the princess you kidnapped."  
  
  
Link stared at the ceiling once more as the guard rambled on. Nothing  
ever seemed to go quite right for him, but he planned to make things  
right this time. If only he could think of some way to escape this cell..  
The Zoran guard took another big sip of coffee as he pondered how to  
get out.  
  
The zora guard stood up suddenly, setting his magazine down. "You..  
stay put for a minute." he said, before running off. Ah, good old cause  
and effect. You drink too much coffee, you have to pee. Link grinned as  
he suddenly thought of how to get out of this predicament...  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Ruto lie in her bed in her room, and for the first time in her life,  
she began to cry. "Everything's been all wrong since that... that stupid  
Gerudo prince showed up.." she sniffed, trying to get her composure back,  
to little avail. "They think they can control me like some sort of puppet..  
I'll show them." Ruto said as she got out of bed, walking towards a small  
chest near the middle of her little island room. She opened it up and began  
gathering various materials, putting them in a seaweed-woven blue bag to  
prepare for the following morning.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The guard walked back into the prison with a sigh. "Man, that was some  
messed up coffee." he said, sitting down in his chair and pulling his  
magazine back up. "Worried for a while there you'd get out, but what was  
I thinking? Only way you'd get out is if someone let you out."  
  
  
He continued reading his magazine, not even paying attention to the  
jail cell at the moment. "I heard rumor that the princess was quite  
fond of you. Don't make any sense why you kidnapped her." the soldier  
commented, turning the last page of his magazine. "Why'd you do it,  
anyway?"  
  
  
  
The guard paused a moment to finish reading, then put the magazine  
down. "Your being awful quiet. Don't tell me you fell asleep on me."  
he said, looking at the cell. Then he gasped. "What the..." he muttered  
as he jumped out of his chair and rushed over to the iron bars. The  
bed was there. Nothing was out of place. But one thing was missing from  
the prison cell. Link.  
  
The guard opened up the prison door and walked in, looking around.  
"Oh, no, this is NOT good..." he said, beginning to panic. "I-I could  
lose my job for this, or worse..!" The guard walked over to the bed and  
crouched down to look under it, then heard two footsteps hit the rock  
floor behind him hard. Before he could turn around, something hit him  
in the side of the neck, hard, knocking him out.  
  
  
Link crouched down and grabbed the guard's keys, then gently shut  
the cell door, walking over to a big chest next to the guard's chair  
and using one of the keys to open it. He began to grab all of his   
things, putting them where they once were, then slipped on the slightly  
oversized hover boots and silently crept out of the prison.   
  
As he reached the exit of the small prison cavern, he slowly peeked  
around to make sure no one was looking. He was looking out into the main  
room of the Domain once more - it seemed that almost everything connected  
to this room.  
  
After assuring himself no one was watching, Link slid down the side of  
the main room's walls. And as he hit the bottom, of coarse, he heard  
footsteps drawing near. "Just my luck.." he thought to himself, looking  
around quickly before ducking into a small tunnel nearby. Two Zoran  
guards walked past without even noticing him; they seemed to be talking about  
something important.  
  
  
Once the soldiers were out of sight, he crawled out of the tunnel and  
began down the main path once more. "Ok, I'll wait outside untill morning,  
come back once Ruto's awake, and help her escape again." he said as he  
began to move a little faster.  
  
'Not very smart.' the voice in his head said. 'Take her now, while  
everyone else is asleep.'  
"Ruto wakes up before anyone else in the Domain, don't worry so much." Link  
said, passing the halfway point of the pathway.  
'Boy, you're being an idiot. Go on, keep going. The dumber you are,  
the faster I'll be rid of you.' the voice laughed. Link seemed confused  
by these words, but his confusion didn't last long as he reached the  
waterfall. The voice continud laughing in his mind as he took a few steps  
back.  
'I wouldn't do that if I were you.' the voice chuckled.  
"Shut up... the Domain will be most heavily guarded tonight, so this  
is the easiest choice."  
'Suit yourself. Idiot.'   
  
  
Link took off running and leapt into the air, passing through the  
falls. At this time, everything seemed to slow down. The roaring of the  
falls filled his ears, heavy water pummeling him yet not phasing him a  
bit. Nothing but white filled his eyes for a moment, before he emerged on  
the other side, the voice in his head cackling madly the entire time. Link  
looked down to prepare to land on the strip of land he always has. But,  
to his horror, someone was already there.  
  
  
  
Link yelled as he looked upon the cruel grinning face of Garland. He  
continued falling towards the man, untill he felt a rock-hard grip take  
hold of his neck and suspend him in the air.   
  
"You pitiful child." Garland laughed as he held Link up by his neck  
with one hand. "You realize the King was going to let you go in the   
morning as a favor to his young daughter. Pity you had to try and  
escape... and injuring the poor guard... After all this, you can  
forget living to see another night."  
  
Link gasped for air, trying to pry Garland's fingers off his   
neck. Garland grinned as he looked at Link's left hand, the same  
side he'd been stabbed on the previous night. "All of this has been  
catching up to you it seems." he said with a wicked grin, before   
slamming Link into the ground, then tossing him a few feet away.  
  
Link groaned, then looked at his hand and stared wide-eyed.  
His entire hand, up to the fingertips, were covered in shadow just  
like his wound. "Crap." he muttered, as Garland slowly stepped up  
to him, a magical glowing sword materializing in his right hand.  
  
'See? What did I tell you? Stupid.' the voice in Link's head  
mocked.  
"If you knew all this, why didn't you tell me..?" coughed Link.  
'Because I want rid of you.'  
"What...?"  
  
  
Suddenly, Garland stabbed Link in the chest with the shining  
sword. Link yelled out in agony, a searing pain tearing through his  
body as the sword melted into him. The darkness of his wound began to  
spread, untill it covered his entire body....  
  
And then, like a spirit leaving a possessed body, the darkness took  
form and slowly rose out of Link's form. It shaped into an exact clone  
of Link, leaving the real Link behind with nothing but a scar on his  
shoulder to prove he'd been stabbed - all the shadow was now in this.. creature.  
  
Garland grinned as the shadow turned to face Link, its shining red  
eyes flashing open. "Finally, I'm free." said a very familiar, cold voice  
from the shadow.  
  
  
"Now, to return the favor of freeing you, will you search this  
Hylian boy's tunic for a blue stone?" Garland asked. The shadow cackled  
a bit.   
"But of coarse. No skin off my back." Shadow Link said, suddenly  
turning into a puddle of shadows and quickly covering the real Link.  
In seconds, he slid off of Link and reformed, with a shimmering blue  
stone in hand. Garland grinned as the shadowy fiend handed him the  
stone. "No..." Link muttered, as Garland walked over to him and  
picked him up by the neck once more.   
  
  
The Gerudo prince grinned and looked at the shadow one last time.  
"Shadow, I've got a job for you-"  
"If I'm not mistaken, my debt has been repayed with that stone  
I gave you." the shadow said. "From here on in, I do as I please."  
"What the.. But if it wasn't for me--"  
"--I would have gotten out sooner or later with or without  
your aid. Now go do whatever it is you want, and I'll do whatever  
it is I want, thank you."   
  
  
The Shadow link took off running, leaping into the darkness  
of the night. Garland sighed, then looked at Link, who had been  
glaring at him this whole time. He kicked Garland in the gut.  
  
The prince laughed and walked back into the domain, with Link  
struggling and kicking him the entire time.   
  
  
"You bring far too much upon yourself..." Garland said as he  
walked up the ramp back towards the prison cavern. "Had you just  
left things the way they were, this wouldn't be happening."  
"I'm not the type who just leaves innocent people to suffer." Link  
said weakly, struggling to breathe thanks to Garland's harsh grasp  
on his neck.  
  
"Yes, I notic..ed..." Garland said as he walked into the prison  
chamber. "Hold on a second..."  
  
  
Garland held Link up and stared at his face for a moment or  
two. "I know who you are now, Hylian boy..."  
"You.. do?" Link said with a gulp.  
"Ever since you got in the picture, my father just vanished."  
Garland said, glaring at Link. "You're that brat who got in his  
way... It's your fault he's gone!"  
  
  
Garland slung Link into the prison cell and slammed the door  
shut, as a wall of flames arose around the bars. "Let's see you  
get out of it this time, you wretched boy." he snarled, before  
striding off. "Come dawn, you'll be out of my way for good..."  
  
  
Link sighed. "Great. Stuck in here again."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
As light poured across Hyrule from the sunrise, our young  
Hylian hero's death was drawing near.   
  
  
Garland briskly strode up the main path of Zora's Domain,   
quite happy today. "Everything's finally coming together.." he  
said to hismelf, reaching into his pocket to run his fingers along  
the smooth edge of the blue stone. He walked into the shadows and put   
the mystic Zora Mask on, before entering the Throne Room as "Stryker."  
  
  
He saw Ruto storming out of the throne room as he walked, and decided  
to take this oppurtunity to try and make up for his bad mood yesterday.  
  
  
  
  
  
"Hey Princess, what's up?" Stryker said, walking in front of her to  
cut her off.   
"Quit calling me that and get out of my face." Ruto said, shoving  
Stryker out of her way before leaping into the waters of the main pool.  
Stryker sighed. "Well, plenty of time for apologies." he said, before  
walking off towards the throne room once again.  
  
  
  
He kneeled before the Zora king once more. "My liege, have you  
made a decision about the young princess?" Stryker asked. The bloated  
King still looked unsure about what to say.   
"I know it is a hard decision," Stryker said, "but you and I both  
know the man she chose. That Hylian scum is to be executed soon, as is  
Zoran law, therefore she really has no suitor any longer."  
  
"I will ask the Princess herself about it." the King said. "Matters  
such as this are too delicate to take lightly."  
"But your highness--"  
"You are dismissed, Stryker." the King said, as several guards stood  
ready to force him out of the throne room if needed. "Your persistance  
in this matter is beginning to trouble me."  
  
"As you wish." Stryker said, bowing before walking out of the throne  
room. As soon as the King and his guards were out of earshot, he took off  
his mask and let out an aggrivated growl. "I've got what I came here for,  
anyway. Their law is meaningless to me now." he said to himself as he  
stormed off towards the exit of the Domain. "Might as well watch the  
execution first..."  
  
  
  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
  
Link was awoke by the sound of magic being dispelled and his prison  
door opening up. At first, a small ray of hope that someone had come to  
save him came, but as he opened his eyes to see the faces of two Zoran  
guards and one Gerudo prince, his hope was shattered. One of the guards  
seemed familiar to him somehow, though... 'oh yeah, that guy from last  
night...'  
  
"Hey, you're that guard who had night shift... Sorry about knocking  
you out like that.." said Link with a sheepish grin. The guard scowled a  
nd jerked him up, throwing him to the other two. Garland grabbed him by  
the neck once more as the guards took some tightly-woven ropes and bound  
his wrists together, as well as one large rock to both of his ankles.  
  
  
Garland let go of his neck, then flicked the back of it, sending  
a stunning shockwave of energy through Link's body, numbing his entire  
body for a mintue. "He won't give you any trouble now." laughed the  
Gerudo prince. The guards nodded and began to drag Link out of the Domain,  
with Garland following close behind, looking as happy as if it were  
Christmas morning.  
  
  
  
  
Link was brought out to the circular ridge that arched across   
ZOra's River in front of the waterfall. A good many of the Zorans were  
standing around to watch it happen, as well as one Zora dressed with a  
black robe, who appeared to be an executioner. The Guards dragged Link's  
stunned body over to the black-clad Zora, who held him still as the guards  
took a few steps back, ready to subdue him at any moment if he began to resist.  
  
Garland grinned as he stood in front of the waterfall, gazing upon the  
scene. "This Hylian is charged with kidnapping her highness, Princess Ruto,  
as well as assault on a royal guard and attempted escape." the Executioner  
said to all the Zorans standing around. "The penalty for such crimes is  
death by drowning." Link grinned inwardly as he heard this. Thanks to the  
blue tunic Ruto made for him, it won't do a thing...  
  
"May I advise something?" Garland said, intterupting. "Apologies, I  
know very well you don't like to do things different, but I know for a  
fact dropping this boy in the river won't kill him." Link has the worst  
luck, doesn't he?  
"And how could he survive being pinned underwater? He's a Hylian." the  
Zoran executioner asked.  
"This boy is no normal Hylian, trust me."   
"Well, what would you suggest?"  
"By all means, drop the boy in the water, but we have to make sure  
he dies." Garland sand, holding his hand up. A long, shadowy whip poured  
from his palm, which he grabbed hold of and tossed into the water - and  
in mere momets, shining red eyes glared through the river as a black snake's  
head surfaced. "That will do the trick. Thank you." Garland said with  
a sadistic smile.  
  
The executioner nodded, then looked at Link. "Any last words before  
you fall to a watery grave?"  
Link muttered something, but his body was still recovering from being  
stunned, which included his mouth, so all that escaped his mouth was gibberish.  
"Heh, that's what I thought." the executioner said, shoving the boy into  
the river. Link let out a startled cry as he hit the icey morning water,  
then stared into the eyes of the black serpent a few meters in front of him.  
  
  
"Here... drink this." a soft voice whispered in his ear as he felt   
the tip of a bottle touch his lips, a sweet liquid filling his mouth as a  
quiet slicing sound was heard as his bonds were cut. The feeling in Link's  
body quickly returned to him as the ropes around his ankle were cut, and he  
pulled out his bow and arrow quickly.  
  
"What the.. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!?" Garland exclaimed furiously as Link  
let off a shining arrow, oblitering the shadowy snake. Behind him, a figure  
in a red cloak&hood became visible. "Let's get out of here!" the claoked  
figure shouted in a feminine voice easily recognized as Ruto's, dashing down   
the river.  
  
  
"Well!? Don't just stand there, GET THEM!!" Garland shouted, jarring the  
guards back to their senses as they took off after the duo. Garland growled  
and pulled out a long wooden staff with a wood sword handle, three odd slots  
placed in the hilt for some reason.  
  
"Atleast I got what I came here for." he said, taking out the ZOra's  
Sapphire and placing it in the appropriate sword slot. The entire wooden  
sword began to glow, as the handle grew longer and turned blue, and in an  
instant an icey blade jutted out, shattering the wooden one in a burst of  
splinters. "Only two to go..."

[End Chapter]


	4. Chapter Four Sadistic Proposition

Disclaimer:  
I do not own the Legend of Zelda.  
If I did, not only would I be rich,  
but I would be having Zelda games made left and right, that could actually be played multiplayer without the use of friggin' Game Boy Advances. Stupid manipulation of the consumers... But alas,  
despite this annoyance, I must admit. The Legend of Zelda; Four Swords Adventures is a pretty awesome game if you have the money to grab atleast two GBAs and an extra Link cable. And now I will shut up, as this is the longest disclaimer I've ever written and we all know no one even reads these things so I'm wasting space and words.  
-  
-  
-  
Author's Note:  
-  
Fourth chapter, and so far our hero's luck, though still a little bad, is starting to change. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering... Link, and all of his equipment in this tale, are all from Ocarina of Time.  
Ruto's, on the other hand, is all the things that are in Zelda III; A Link to the Past that weren't included in Ocarina of Time. Hence the red Magic Cloak that made her invisable ) Oh, the cleverness of me. Sort of. oo -  
Anyway. Expect to see more of these elusive SNES items.  
And in case you didn't notice, the plot is finally getting away from Zora's Domain. Which is good, because the lack of having to describe everything over and over agan was beginning to hurt the length of chapters. I think. Oh yeah, and though there may be an Ocarina of Time sequel in the works now, this story was started, and shall finish, ignorant of that game's plot, because I don't want to wait for it to come out, nor do I like having to work my story between the plotlines of many sequels.  
Sorry it took so long to write. It takes too long to explain.  
Writers block, school, vacation, computers messing up constantly.  
Bah.  
Just wish me luck, I'm hoping to make it six or seven chapters,  
possibly more. And then who knows, maybe I'll pull a disney stunt and make a crappy sequel! D -  
(kidding about that)  
-  
-  
-  
-  
)Serenade of Water  
-  
-  
-  
-  
Chapter Four  
Sadistic Proposition  
-(note: all the little dashes is to save this story from the horror that is Document Manager. THank you)  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
----As the morning sun began to climb into the sky over Hyrule, a blue-clad Hylian and a red cloaked Zoran were dashing down the Zora's River, with eight zoran guards in close pursuit. -  
----Ruto pulled out a burnt orange tinted staff, and held it behind her as she ran. Magic sparkles came from the tip of the staff, before suddenly big red blocks began to materialize seemingly out of nowhere.  
They landed along the river, creating quite an obstacle coarse for their pursuers.  
-  
-  
----One of the guards tripped over a block and got stuck between two others, but the other seven continued as fiercely as before, leaping nimbly over the blocks with ease. They seemed to be going a pretty good job of distancing themselves from the soldiers, as two more of them slammed into blocks head-on.  
-  
-  
----"Uh oh, a little low on magic.." Ruto said, as she put the Cane of Byrna away and sped up a bit. ----"Take to the waters, men!" the guard in front yelled as they leapt into the river and began to close the distance between themselves and the fugitives at an alarming rate.  
-  
-  
----Ruto pulled out a small bottle of green liquid and downed it, before pulling out a blue rod with a crystal tip, aiming for the river. Small white sparkles shot out of the rod, and as they hit the water, it began to freeze.  
-  
-  
----The first three guards slammed into the ice, as all five poked their heads out of the water just in time for the rest of their bodies to be frozen in the patch of ice that now covered a rather noticable chunk of the river.  
"Dang it!" shouted one of the guards through chattering teeth. -  
-  
-  
- ----Link and Ruto reached the entrance to the Hyrule Field. "We're almost there, finally!" Ruto said, before suddenly a shadowy figure fell from above,  
landing gracefully and slowly rising. Before the two young heroes stood a shadow-black Zoran soldier, with shining crimson eyes.  
-  
-  
----"Why are there so many of these shadow things lately?" Link said with a sigh as he reached for an arrow, realizing that, for the first time in ages.. he was out.  
-  
-  
----The Zoran shadow took a fighting stance and got ready to fight as Link pulled out the Kokiri shortsword, and Ruto took out the blue rod once more.  
The creature suddenly lunged at Ruto, slashing madly; she leapt out of the way and shot another burst of icey magic at the shadow, as it rolled away and stood up to face Link, only to feel a blade thrust between its eyes. The shadowy figure screamed in agony and the two took off, Link kicking the creature off his blade before dashing away beside Ruto.  
-  
-  
-  
----The shadow Zoran guard slowly stood up, coughing, as heavy footsteps drew near. The creature turned to face the Gerudo prince, Garland, glaring at him.  
"You let them get away, you useless doppelganger." he said with a scowl. "But fortunately for you, I have another task. Go seek a shadow such as yourself, one who looks just like the Hylian scum, and bring him to me." ----The shadow nodded and darted away, vanishing in mere moments as the gerudo prince sighed and began walking towards Hyrule Castle. "Good help is so hard to find these days..." he muttered as dark clouds began to envelop the skies.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
----Link and Ruto slowed their pace to a walk once they were sure no one was pursuing them. By now they were halfway across the Hyrule Field, though they had no idea of where to go next. "Well, so long as we aren't ambushed again,  
I think we made it." Ruto said with a grin, putting the ice rod away. Link nodded in agreeance, catching his breath for a moment or so. "You owe me a lot for all the times I've saved you." laughed the Zoran princess. "Maybe I should become a wandering hero like you"  
- ----Thunder rumbled in the distance as dark clouds began to cover the skies overhead, a few drops of water falling upon their heads. "Uh oh, we better find some shelter..." Link said, looking around quickly. "Talon should let us stay atleast until the storm blows over"  
-  
----"Hylians don't like a little rain?" teased Ruto as the began to walk towards Talon's ranch. ----"It's going to get bad soon..." said Link, wishing they were closer to the ranch. Ruto laughed a bit. "How bad could it possibly get?" she said with a hint of amusement.  
-  
-  
----As if the very words caused it to happen, a bolt of lightning tore into a tree not too far away, a ground-shaking, thunderous roar filling the air moments later. Ruto shrieked as it began to pour down rain, before glaring at Link. "Don't you dare say 'I Told you So.'" she threatened before they both began running towards the ranch.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-----Link and Ruto ran into the ranch and towards the horse stables.  
The storm had gotten even worse over the last minute or so, the icey raindrops stinging as they lashed against the skin of the pair, the winds howling loudly, threatening to blow them away at any moment.  
Link grasped the doorknob and tried to open to door, to no avail. -  
----"I thought you said we'd be able to stay here!" Ruto shouted over the gale.  
----"They must be asleep, but they won't mind if we take shelter!  
Follow me!" Link shouted back, his voice barely audible through the howling winds.  
-  
-  
----The pair began forcing their way across the ranch, though the wind was making it very difficult for them. After what should have been a short journey across the ranch's threshold, they finally opened the door to a large cylindrical stone building and dashed into it, slamming the door shut after a short struggle with the wind.  
-  
-  
----Link and Ruto plopped down on the soft hay nearby to catch their breath and rest. "I've never seen this big of a storm spring up this fast ..." Ruto said, picking off pieces of hay that were clinging to her drenched form.  
-  
----"I know.." said Link, "It's not even the right time of year for a hurricane-like storm such as this"  
- ----"Atleast we're safe now, though." Ruto said with a grin. "This is the first time I've been free like you ... is it always this rough"  
-  
----"It's not usually this bad." Link said with a chuckle. "But you can't expect it to be an easy life all the time"  
-  
----"Mmm, I think I'll just stay like this long enough to see the world ... then I want to just find a nice, secreted place to settle down"  
Ruto said, stretching out in the hay. "Somewhere with a good bit of water,  
preferably"  
-  
----"I'd like to join you, but I have some unfinished business to take care of..." said the Hylian boy, pulling his hat off and tossing it on the floor to dry. -  
----"Like what?" Ruto asked, placing her hands behind her to rest her head upon as she turned to look at Link.  
- ----"Garland won't forget what we did very easily, and we can't run forever." said Link. "He seems to be a very pursuasive person, and given time he could have atleast half of Hyrule hunting us down"  
-  
----"Then let's run away, see realms beyond Hyrule." Ruto suggested.  
"There's no way his influence could reach us then"  
----"He'd still hunt us down eventually... There's no avoiding it.  
Besides, he can't be any tougher than Gannondork." Link said with a smirk.  
-  
----"Guess you're right. Either way you're as stubborn as I am." Ruto said with a sigh. "We'll do it your way. But after this whole ordeal is over, you'll owe me big"  
-  
----"Deal." Link said. "For now, let's just try to get some rest"  
-  
-  
- -  
-  
-  
-  
----As the storm raged on, a creature moved unseen through the Lost Woods; although the rain was mostly stopped by the walls of trees surrounding these woods, the wind roared quite strongly, and the branches above creaked as they shook violently.  
-  
----The shadowy figure dashed silently through the moss-floored woods, moving as gracefully as if it were floating as its search continued. The thing it had stalked all the way from Zora's Domain had to be nearby, it just had to .  
-  
-  
----And as if the very thought had summoned the beast, the slender shadowy form slammed into a different dark figure, falling backwards.  
The dark figure stood his ground, slowly turning to face the one who slammed into him, his crimson eyes piercing through the darkness of the storm with an intense light to glare at the unlucky fool who had the misfortune of bumping into him.  
-  
- ----The more slender, Zoran-shaped shadow slowly stood up, opening his own pair of red glistening eyes to return the unwelcome stare. "You're the one my Masster seekss..." hissed the Zoran guard.  
-  
----"Am I, now?" the taller of the two shadows said with an unseen smirk, pulling out his blackened blade. "And tell me, creature, who might this Master of yours be?" -  
----"Garland seeks your assistance"  
-  
----"I bet he does." the shadow Link said with a dry laughter. "And I assume the concieted imbecile let my half-wit, pathetic alter ego escape his grasp, leaving me to be his last hope of attaining his petty little revenge"  
-  
----"He requires your help in stopping the Hylian, and nothing more." the Zoran shadow hissed. "Why are you so harsh? The Master created you as well"  
-  
-  
----"Pitiful lies from a pitiful being." the Link-like doppelganger said, looking at the other shadow boredly as he began pacing in slow circles around it. "You are naught but the corrupt waste drawn from a Zoran soldier like venom from a wound. You are nothing but filth. I, on the other hand, have been distilled, purified through the dark actions of my old host, destined to escape eventually whether that fool had released me sooner or not"  
-  
----"You and I are just the ssame"  
-  
----"Pathetic whelp! Hold your tongue!" the shadow Link said, grasping the other shadow's neck and jerking him up into the air, kneeing him in the gut. "I overestimated your ability to process any form of intelligent thought, it would seem. You would be too stupid to even follow a simple command such as delivering a refusal message back to your so-called Master, therefore you are not, never were and forever more shall remain useless"  
-  
-  
------Shadow Link tossed the Zoran into the air, holding his sword out to impale the beast. The zoran shadow let out a bloodcurling shriek of agony; although most physical weapons do poorly against a shadow such as these, it would appear fellow shadows can be quite harmful, indeed.  
-  
-----S.Link held his sword up high, the other shadow dangling from it with labored breathing. "Spare me ... brother.." coughed the Zoran shadow.  
-  
----"Brother? How dare you speak as if we were equals!" the sinister shadow said, smirking as he twisted his blade inside the zoran shadow's gut,  
causing more agonized cries to emit from it. "You will refer to me as Master. Then I will consider acknowledging you"  
-  
-  
----The dark swordsman's free hand turned into a sharp claw and, using his sword to keep the Zoran dangling in the air, he began stabbing the other shadow at lightning speed, a shower of black blood drenching the grass and plants around them.  
-  
----"A..Alright... M...Master... please...!" coughed the shadow zora in between screams of pain. After a few more stabs, the dark alter ego of Link seemed pleased, and dropped the zoran, setting his knee upon its chest and pressing his weight into it, laboring the creature's breathing even worse than it once was.  
-  
-  
- ----"I will have pity upon your pathetic existance if you will end my curiosity about a certain matter involving Garland." the dark Link said with a smirk.  
-  
----"Wh.. Whatever you wissh.." hissed the zoran shadow, his red eyes fading a bit as he coughed up more of the pitch black blood.  
-  
----"I understand his petty little plots for revenge perfectly, what vexes me is why he wanted the Zora's Sapphire." Shadow Link said. "All I need to know is whether or not he will attempt to acquire the other two stones "  
-  
----"Yess. ... more than likely ..." the shadow zoran coughed. "Please.  
releassse.. me"  
-  
----"Of coarse, in a moment, worm." Shadow Link said, pressing down hard on the weaker being's chest, grinning sadistically as a few weakened gasps of pain filled his ears. He held up his blade above his head and cackled darkly.  
-  
----"... what ... what are you doing...?" the Zoran coughed, panick-stricken.  
-  
----"Why, I am only fulfilling my word." stated the shadow link. "You wished to be released. Or did you wish for me to let you live?" The creature seemed to ponder for a moment, mostly to mock and annoy his prey, before grinning wickedly once more. "Ah well, too late to worry about such confusions in negotiation now, I suppose"  
-  
----"But ... you said... you'd spare .. me..!" gagged the zoran guard as his chest was stomped once more by the shadow above him. Lightning crashed in the distance as bone-chilling maniacal laughter filled the air.  
-  
----"No, I said I would have pity upon your pathetic existance. And so I do." reminded Shadow Link. "Such a waste of negative emotions "  
-  
-  
-----And with one final thrust, a gargled scream echoed throughout the woods, which was slowly drowned out by the howling of winds once more. The Zoran shadow melted away untill it ceased to exist, and Shadow Link chuckled dryly as he leapt into the shadows, the crimson glow of his eyes vanishing in the distance.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-----As night fell upon the land of Hyrule, the horrid storm raged just as badly as it had earlier. Though now, with every flash of the frequent bolts of lightning, a man could be seen walking across Hyrule field, unmoved by the powerful winds and not flinching in the face of the heavy, ice-cold rain. His cape flailed wildly in the wind behind him as he strode camly towards Hyrule City. What kind of idiot would be walking aroud in this weather, you ask? Garland, of coarse. His inherited big nose could be easily recognized at first glance, even in this heavy downpour.  
-  
-  
----The Gerudo prince stopped at the flooded moat of the royal city, glaring at the closed gate before him. "Why must there always be SOMETHING in my way..." muttered Garland, before leaping into the air and clean over the wall. He plunged into the marketplace on the other side, landing on the cobblestone walkway,  
which was currently flooded up to his ankles. The Prince began wading through the flooded marketplace and towards the Temple of Time behind it, Thunder rumbled in the distance as he climbed a somewhat small flight of stairs, turning rigt to traverse behind the market buildings and straight towards a large white cathedral. "The other stones should still be right here..." Garland said with a wicked grin as he opened the doors into the large temple, walking in and closing the doors behind him. -  
-  
----The place was very poorly lit; so bad that the only way he could see was from the light of frequent lightning flashes. He strode down the large, open hallway towards a small alter with slots for three stones to be placed in.  
-  
----"After the trouble it took to get ahold of the Zora's Sapphire, the rest of these stones will be like taking candy from a baby..." Garland said with a smirk, pulling out his enchanted sword, running his thumb along the two empty slots of the icey blade. Lightning flashed once more, revealing two stones floating before him above the altar, Garland's cruel, triumphant smirk also coming into light. As the light of the storm was consumed by darkness once more,  
Garland reached out to grasp the stones.  
-  
-  
-----A second later, another bolt came down, illuminating the cathedral. Garland's eyes widened as he watched his hand lash out at nothing. "What the ... Where are the stones? What happened to them?" yelled Garland with a glare as he began to look around the room. "Who's there? Do you realize who you're dealing with"  
the prince shouted into the darkness.  
-  
-----"But of coarse. I am merely interfering with the pitiful plots of a derranged, pathetic man with a wasted life." -  
-  
-----Garland turned around to the source of the voice and glared as his eyes met a pair of glowing crimson ones, the only thing visible of his newest annoyance in this darkness. "The shadow Hylian..." -  
-  
-----Another bolt of lightning flashed, revealing for a mere moment the silhouette of Shadow Link, who was twirling the green and red stones Garland seeked between his fingertips. "To quote the last words of a child who recently had the misfortune of attempting to steal my blade, 'Finders Keepers"  
-  
-  
----"You insolent creature, give me those stones if you want to live!" Garland said with a growl.  
----"I don't believe you're in much of a position to make demands." the shadow said with a glare. "In fact, I believe that threat calls for giving you even more of a difficult time in accomplishing your goal"  
-  
-  
----Garland held his free hand out, a short sword created of beams of light materializing in his hand, its golden glow softly illuminating the room. "You could have been useful to me, a shame you're forcing me to do this." Garland said, leaping at Shadow Link. The shadow merely stood tall, staring him down as the prince thrusted his sword through the Shadow Link's gut.  
-  
-  
---"Aaaahhh! It buuurrrnns uss!" Shadow Link screamed as a cruel smirk twisted Garland's lips. But after a moment or so, the shadow creature quit flailing around in feigned agony and stood still once more, the sword of light remaining impaled in his abdomen. "Enough joking. Your insolence will not remain unpunished." -  
-  
----THe shadow tossed the stones into the air, the pair of gems vanishing into the shadows, never to fall back down. "Wh.. What have you done?" Garland practically roared. Shadow Link held a hand around the blade of light, causing a darkness to spread through it and consume it like a plague, the sword melting into a black liquid.  
-  
-----"Allow me to educate you on something, you spoiled egotistical maniac.  
You have no power over me." the shadow said with a smirk. Garland merely scowled, looking as if he were plotting a million different slow and torturous deaths for this meddler.  
-  
-  
-  
----"You're aiding the Hylian!" Garland said after a moment or so. The Shadow busted out laughing. ----"Aiding? I am aiding nobody, you simpleton. I hate you, and I hate that little peon in the green skirt." the Shadow link said. "Therefore, I wish to amuse myself by troubling you both. Your plot means nothing to me. By all means, if you can accomplish my petty little task, I'll be more than happy to concede the stones to you. I am merely inserting a little much needed irony into the land of Hyrule"  
-  
-  
-----"... Fine." Garland muttered, realizing that he had no other choice, for the time being atleast. "What do I have to do"  
-  
-  
-----"I have hidden each of these stones in a different dungeon. For red, the temple in Death Mountain. For green, the temple in Kokiri Forest. You must do as my weak alter-ego has done in the past. Go through each dungeon completing a series of petty, meaningless tasks, engage in epic duel against some sort of gigantic beast, then claim your prizes. Simple, really. Oh, and on the way,  
if you harm a single innocent person, the deal is off. You are playing the hero,  
after all." Shadow Link said with a cackle.  
-  
-----"You are really annoying. You know that?" Garland said with a scowl.  
-----"Oh, by the way, because I loathe the Hylian even more than you, I have given you a head start." Shadow Link said. "You see, if the Hylian can complete whatever petty task I give him, I will give him whatever stones you haven't collected. Better take advantage of your extra time untill I find him." the shadow said with a psychotic cackling as he leapt into the shadows and vanished.  
The storm outside seemed to be calming now somehow as the skies began to slowly turn to dark shades of blue. Garland growled and began walking out of the temple.  
"Mark my words, shadow, as soon as this is over, you're as good as dead ..." -  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-----As the light of dawn began to pour over the momentarily peaceful realm of Hyrule, the world began to awake to a new day. Roosters began to crow, a certain Gerudo prince began his grim trek to the Forest Temple, and a 'vicious' outlaw.  
-  
-----Was currently oversleeping in a rock silo outside of a ranch in the middle of the open countryside. He'd had a hard night, and were clearly exhausted, the sound of loud snoring filling the silo. The farm hands were just waking up at Talon's ranch, getting theselves ready for a long day of tending to animals. The storm had fallen to a light drizzle of rain today, but other than that all seemed right in the world again.  
-  
-  
------Unfortunately, the storm had blocked the moon and stars, therefore no one could hope to have seen a certain intruder who gave a visit a mere hour before the sun began to rise.  
-  
-  
-  
------Inside the silo where the young Link slept, a shadowy figure was pacing back and forth. "How much sleep do you wretched mortals need?" the shadow-hylian wondered as he glared at his alter ego, before stopping to take a better look around the silo. The shadow walked over to a stack of several bails of hay tied up into cubes, picking them up and hurling them at Link one by one. "Wake up already, you lazy Hylian"  
-  
-  
-  
------He heard a noise from under the pile of hay and smirked, but began to quickly become annoyed as he realized this noise was naught but further snoring. The Shadow Link yelled in exasperation as he reached through the hay, grabbed Link by the collar of his blue tunic and jerked him up into the air, violently shaking him.  
"Ju.. just a few more minutes, mommy..." Link muttered, furthering his alter-ego's annoyance. -  
------Shadow Link sighed, walking outside and carrying Link over to a long horse trauf filled with water, dropping the young hylian in it. Link jumped awake as soon as he woke up with a cry of "Ahh! Ruto! That's n-not funny! This water's freaking cold"  
-  
-  
------"Well maybe if you'd woken your pathetic self up sooner I wouldn't have had to resort to this!" Shadow Link yelled, kicking the trauf over and tumbling Link into a nearby fence. Link jumped up as soon as he realized what was going on,  
pulling out his Kokiri sword and glaring at his shadowy counterpart. "What are you doing here? Where's Ruto"  
-  
------"She's in my care at the moment.." Shadow Link said with a grin. "In good condition at the moment, so I wouldn't recommend making me mad, or that may change"  
-  
------Link yelled and charged at Shadow Link, thrusting his blade out as if to stab the shadow. Shadow Link jumped up and landed on Link's blade perfectly as the hylian held it in the air, the weightless shadow balancing perfectly atop the thin strip of steel. ------"Imbecile.." the shadow said with a sigh, kicking Link in the nose as he backflipped off of the blade and landed on his dark feet. "You can have the brat for all I care if you really want her. But you'll have to do something for me first, or we can't guarentee her safety, now can we"  
------Link scowled, keeping his sword out just in case he felt he needed it.  
"What do you want"  
------"Glad you've come to your senses." the shadow said with a wicked grin.  
"Here's the deal. You see, I had a meeting with Garland recently. He is having to play the hero and rid the land of a couple of terrible beasts and endure a pair of obnoxious, pointless dungeons to attain his stones. Since you were so rude to me just now, I don't believe I'm going to give them to you if he fails. You'll have to figure that part out on your own." the shadow said, giving a bit of a glare to Link as he said the word 'rude'. "For you, however.. To save the princess, you must play the villian"  
-----"What do you mean?" Link said, continuing to glare at his evil twin.  
------"There is a priceless gem in the treasury of Hyrule Castle. All you have to do is steal it for me." Shadow Link said. ------"That's it? Then you'll give her back?" Link asked. The shadow looked mildly surprised. "What's this? No objections from the noble hero?" the shadow asked.  
------"I've snuck into the castle before, and they won't miss the gem that bad"  
-  
------The shadow laughed. "You've still got some of me in you." the shadow said with a smirk. Link scowled. ------"I'm only doing this to save Ruto"  
------"Right, whatever." the shadow said with another snicker, before walking towards Link, standing on the Hylian's shadow. "I'll be accompanying you in case you choose to defy my wishes to steal the gem." he said as he slowly melted into Link's shadow. "Oh, and if anyone gets in your way... kill them"  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
End Chapter 

-  
-(OmG, Garland didn't have the last word for once)  
-  
-  
-


	5. Chapter Five Betrayal of Link

Disclaimer:  
I do not own the Legend of Zelda.  
Pity me. I do however own an original game I'm working on. Expect shameless plugs to my game when I begin marketing it. )  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-Author's Note:  
-  
-  
-Chapter the Fifth. Did you honestly expect Link's luck to stay good for long? Maybe he'll finally have peace for a while after all of this chaos is through. Well. If he's still alive, that is.  
Ruto hasn't taken kindly to being kidnapped, of coarse. She'll come back to the plotline eventually. As for Garland, well... he's about to have the luck of our hero. Come to think of it, Garland is a pretty unlucky fellow too. His plot to marry Ruto failed. His plot to kill Link failed. His plot to steal the two remaining stones.. failed. His five-second plot to kill Shadow Link failed. And he was born with his father's huge nose. Poor sinister tyrant.  
-  
Anyway. I hope people still read this story. I'm kinda proud of it myself, not to be conceited One of the few Link/Ruto tales around I love writing unusual/unpopular couples such as this,  
because chances are they're the ones I liked in the show/game/etc. And um. Yeah. This chapter's going to be bloody. Beware.  
And a quick rant; You can thank Harry Potter book 6 for the completion of this chapter. (Spoilers to those who want to read it, by the way)  
I'm a huge fan of Harry/Ginny. And, well. Let's just say the ending left me wanting more... But it should (I hope and pray) continue being as the romance in Spiderman and they shall reunite in the seventh tale. After all,  
the young redhead has wanted his affections for this many years, I highly doubt she'll give him up that easily. Anyway, my thirst for romance has multiplied, and I must finish this story. Reviews are greatly appreciated, because some of the reason I don't update is I feel my work is going unnoticed at times. P But it'll help to actually update more than twice a year, I suppose. Enjoy!  
-  
-  
-  
-  
)Serenade of Water( -  
-  
-  
-  
Chapter Five The MisAdventures of Garland & The Betrayal of Link -  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
------The long, harsh storm finally ended as the morning sun rose above Hyrule, clouds parting to spread sunlight along the currently wet countryside.  
Morning birds chirped cheery little songs, forest animals began to come out of their homes, children playing hide & seek amidst the trees.  
-  
------And a man in black armor with a long flowing cape could be seen stomping through the forest with a constant scowl, cursing the annoying sounds of birds,  
cursing the cuddly bunnies nearby, and most of all cursing the little children playing in these wretched woods he'd been lost in for hours. To see kids enjoying themselves in such an annoying place aggrivated him beyond reason. He'd likely kill the children now if it wouldn't violate the agreement he'd made with the Shadow Link.  
-  
------Garland glared around. "Where the heck is the Forest Temple?" he wondered to himself. "I've been roaming around this obnoxious forest since midnight"  
The dark knight looked down at one of the kids hiding behind a tree nearby and scratched his chin. "Hmm, perhaps these children could help... they seem to be familiar to these woods.." he said, walking over to where the little brown-haired boy was hiding.  
-  
------"Go away, mister, you'll give away my hiding place!" the kid whispered as Garland drew near. The son of Gannondorf scowled, trying to keep his temper at bay as he slowly forced a pleasant smile - which ended up more creepy than pleasant coming from him.  
------"I just need to know where the Forest Temple is"  
------"Why should I tell you? You're going to give me away to the seeker"  
------"Just tell me where the Temple is"  
------"Bug off, ugly." the kid said, shoving Garland back an inch or so. The Gerudo Prince scowled, grabbing the child up by the collar of his shirt and holding him up high in the air. ------"Tell me where the Temple is!" Garland yelled in the child's face.  
------"Eww, ever heard of breath mints?" the kid said, holding his nose.  
Garland growled and shook the kid around a bit, before holding him still once more. "Tell me now, or I'll make you regret the day you were born"  
------"Bite me." the little boy said, kicking Garland between the legs. The prince groaned in agony as he fell to the ground on his knees, the little kid running off to find a new hiding place. "I.. hate.. kids"  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
------Meanwhile, nearer to the royal city of Hyrule, a young teenager in a blue tunic was sneaking through the alleyways behind the shops and homes, unnoticed by all but a few rats here and there. -  
------"Sneaking is fine now, but what will you do to get in the castle?" Link heard his shadow's voice in his head once more, wishing he could have done this alone now. ------"I've snuck in once with ease, I can do it again." Link said as he darted through another opening between buildings, making sure nobody saw him.  
------"You won't find it so easy this time around..." Shadow Link said with an unnerving cackle.  
------"What do you mean?" Link said, recieving no reply as the shadow remained silent from then on. "Oh, sure, you can talk when it annoys me but you can't answer a simple question"  
------"Halt! Who goes there"  
-  
-  
-  
------Link stopped and looked up to see a pair of Hylian guards. In his arguments with his shadow, he hadn't realized he was already at the gate that blocks the path to the castle grounds. He heard a wicked little cackle inside of his mind.  
"You really are as stupid as you look." Shadow Link commented.  
------"Now how am I supposed to get the gem? You should have said something"  
Link muttered quietly to his shadow.  
------"Silence! Put your hands up!" one of the guards said as they both pointed their swords at Link.  
------"No one said you couldn't spill blood." the shadow said. "It appears that's the only way out of this mess, now, isn't it"  
-  
------Link shook his head and did a quick spin, smacking the soldiers in the head with his boomerang and making their helmets spin backwards as he took off running.  
"Guards! Intruder!" someone yelled as Link climbed the gate and darted through the outer courtyard, six guards dashing towards Link from several patrol points.  
------"Idiot, if you had silently killed those guards, you'd have no witnesses.  
Now the whole castle is going to know you're here in a matter of moments." the shadow laughed as Link ran for his life.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
- -------Garland glared down at a little blonde-haired girl below him, who stared up at him with innocent, big blue eyes, hugging a teddy bear nearly as big as her.  
-------"Let's try this again..." Garland growled.  
-------"Why"  
-------"Because you didn't answer me! Now tell me where the forest temple is"  
-------"Why"  
-------"Because I want to know"  
-------"Why"  
-------"Because I can't find it"  
-------"Why"  
-------"Because I'm lost in these wretched woods"  
-------"Why"  
-------"Because I've never been here before"  
-------"Why"  
-------"Because this place is stupid"  
-------"Why"  
-------"Because it pointlessly loops you around in endless circles"  
-------"Why"  
-------"Because apparently someone doesn't want me to find the Forest Temple"  
-------"Why"  
-------"Because you don't want to know what will happen to you if you don't tell me where it is"  
-------"Why"  
-------"Because..." He growled as he lost his patience with the little girl.  
-------"BECAUSE IF YOU DON'T TELL ME I'LL RIP YOUR TEDDY BEAR'S HEAD OFF!" Garland screamed to the top of his lungs, his voice echoing throughout the forest. The little girl started up at him, unmoved.  
-------"You're weird." she said.  
-------"Why you little.." he started to say, before he overheard a couple of children talking about finding the "best hiding place" near the temple. Garland grinned and stalked the nearby hiders, finally drawing closer to his goal.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-------The entire Hyrule Castle was covered in guards searching the castle and the courtyard, everyone combing the area for any sign of the aforementioned intruder,  
though none seemed smart enough to figure out he was swimming along the bottom of the moat, his tunic's collar acting as gills. He swam through several different openings and into the lower waterworks of Hyrule Castle, which was a large rectangular area with grey stone walkways and rivers of water flowing through the castle to and from the moat, the only light coming from burning torches lining the walls.  
"There's no one around. Surface, boy." the shadow said.  
-------"I can get straight to the treasury through the waterworks." Link said,  
before feeling something icey cold surround his neck, pushing the collar of the tunic away. -------"Can you make the shortcut without cheating?" the shadow said with a laugh as Link realized quickly he couldn't breathe underwater anymore. The young Hylian quickly surfaced and rolled onto the cold stone walkway nearby, coughing up some water as he gasped for air. "You idiot!" Link exclaimed with another cough as the shadow merely cackled inside of his head. The blue-clad hero stood up and began sneaking across the waterworks, quickly crossing the distance between himself and the exit of the waterworks, swiftly ascending a staircase leading to the bottom floor of the castle. -------"Turn left." the voice in his head advised. Link started to go the way he was told, before stopping and looking down the other hallway.  
-------"I don't believe you. You have a sick sense of humor." Link said as he began walking his own way down the long, majestic red-carpeted hallway, white marble-looking walls and floor around him. Paintings of other royalty, pillars, and potted plants dotted the walls of the hallway as the hylian swiftly strode across it.  
-------"Suit yourself." the shadow said, slightly amused, as Link continued ignoring his alter ego. As he turned the corner, however, he realized he made a big mistake as four patrolling guards spotted him. "There's the intruder!" one of the blue-armoured soldiers shouted as they pulled out their swords and began pursuing the Hylian.  
-------"Told you so." the Shadow said.  
-------"Fine, which way do I go now?" Link muttered, taking a few steps away from the hallway.  
-------"Keep going, as fast as you can." the shadow advised. Link decided to believe him this time as he dashed between the guards and began running as fast as he could down the long hallway, the four royal guards in close pursuit.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-------Meanwhile, near Death Mountain, a young Gerudo prince was climbing up the long winding paths that ascended the cliffside, admiring a green stone in his hand. "That was far too easy." he said cheerfully, placing the green stone in the appropriate slot in the hilt of his blade. Vines surrounded the handle of the sword, a few long thorns jutting out the sides of it where his hand wouldn't be and on the bottom, as the icey blade jutted out, covering itself in icey thorns and breaking apart to extend into a long whip of pieces of an icey, thorned blade with a long green vine-like whip connecting them together. He coiled his new toy delicately and put it away.  
-------Just in time to have a boulder roll past him, crushing his foot.  
"AAAAAGHHH!" screamed Garland as he held his foot in agony, cursing at the top of his lungs, several straying Gorons who were staring at him deciding to flee. The Gerudo Prince glared up the mountain as another rock soared past him, his cape flapping wildly in the wind. He began trudging up the rocky path once more, cursing under his breath between grumblings. "When I get my hands on that wretched shadow..." he growled, swiftly slamming his fist into an oncoming boulder, shattering it into a shower of painful little pebbles against him. "AAGH! I'LL KILL HIM!" he yelled in a cross between being humiliated at his failed attempt to avoid harm and having little jagged rocks stab him all over.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
--------"What are you trying to do, get me killed?" Link yelled angrily as he skidded to a stop in front of a locked door - and a dead end. Eight guards already drew near enough to cut off any form of escape as Link turned to face them, bracing himself with his shield.  
-  
--------"You intend to fight off eight of Hyrule's finest with a mere shield?" Shadow Link said scornfully. "Pull out your sword, fool"  
------"I won't hurt innocent people." Link said calmly as the guards drew near.  
------"You have no choice!" the shadow in the back of his mind spat back.  
------"I'm a hero, I can do this without hurting anyone!" Link retorted - the guards seemed bewildered as to why Link was talking to himself, but were pulling out their spears nonetheless.  
------"Eight against one, with spears strong enough to pierce metal, and you, a master swordsman, refusing to draw his blade... That isn't bravery, that isn't courage, that is suicide! You intend to perish at the hands of these incopetent so-called soldiers!" the shadow yelled, apparently sickened by how far Link was willing to go to avoid comitting a wicked deed.  
------"I've got other things I can use, I"  
-  
-  
-  
-  
--------By now, of coarse, Link was already having to use his shield to parry endless jabs of spears, drawing his blade to work as a secondary shield and try to sever the heads from his foe's weapons.  
------"Slay them now! Even if you run, they'll return in multiplied numbers"  
the shadow hissed.  
------"No, I'm doing fine -- Rrgh! -- like this..!" Link yelled stubbornly,  
trying to find an opening to get past the guards, his left upper arm pouring blood from a spear wound that narrowly missed his chest. ------"If you don't do it now, I'll leave you!" the Shadow threatened, as if it were something that would devistate the Hylian hero.  
------"Good! Without you I'd be done by"  
------"And if I leave," hissed the shadow once more in Link's mind, his voice icey, but with a hint of amusement returned to it, "I'll make the young Zoran's death a slow and painful one, after recalling every moment of your foolish attempt at being valiant before you were murdered for being common, thieving scum"  
------"Don't touch her!" Link said, growling as he felt energy building up in his blade.  
------"Fight back! Fight back or she dies, because you gave up on her"  
- - - - --------Suddenly - Link could not explain what he felt, it was as if the Shadow Link himself had taken over - but Link felt a burning hot rage from within him,  
hating his alter ego with every fiber of his being, hating himself for allowing Ruto to be kidnapped, and hating Garland for causing all of this to happen; but instead of venting his anger in justified vengeance against those who had caused him such pain, he lashed out at the guards at last, any ounce of humanity he once had gone for those few berserk seconds that seemed to last hours.  
-  
-  
---------The Hylian swifly spun around as his shining blade sliced through most of the Guard's spears, Shadow Link diving out of Link's form in a calm frontflip over the soldiers' heads, landing behind to block their escape. Link glared at the guards, fiercly swinging his sword at them like an animal - he felt a searing pain in his leg as a spearhead thrust into it, but in the same instant he watched as his sword sliced through the man's arm, severing it & swinging around as if it had a mind of its own to continue rendering the flesh of his foes, his mind filled with nothing but rage, the anguished screams of his victims, and the mad cackling of the shadow that stood behind the crimson shower.  
- - - - - - - ---------"How long is this bloody temple!" Garland scowled, as he reached a tall room inside the volcanic cavern inside Death Mountain; it was a square room, with a few rock balconies overlooking a pit that fell seemingly endless feet down into the volcanic dungeons below, the only thing bridging the gap being a thin walkway,  
curving across the center of the room. "First I get lost in the bloody woods, then I have to trudge up a mountain that, for no apparent reason, has boulders flying down it nonstop, had to pick countless sharp pebbles out of my skin with a bloody sword, and now "  
-  
-  
-  
---------In his current fit of pouting, Garland had failed to notice the golfball-  
sized rock he was about to stand on, and for one horrific moment Garland felt himself trip, before plunging down into the volcanic dungeons below him, yelling loudly all the way down, the fall only taking about ten seconds but feeling like an eternity.  
-  
-  
---------The Gerudo Prince landed, face-first, on a rocky platform below, the intense heat of the flowing lava nearby not helping him feel any better as he staggared to his feet once more, yelling and cursing as he began his trek back up the cavern.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
--------After much annoyance, the Gerudo Prince had returned to the same room he once fell, which, in comparison to the lake of fire below him, felt almost cool. He began carefully walking across the thin path, muttering under his breath but being sure he focused on where he was stepping this time. And, after a short walk, he reached the other side and gave out a triumphant shout... which, most unfortunately, awakened a flock of bats in the cavernous tunnel, the swarm pouring out around and into the Gerudo Prince, who gave out a terrified cry as he staggared backwards, falling once more down the seemingly endless pit into likely another face-first visit to the rocks below.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
--------Link stood at the end of the hallway, his blue tunic stained from a shower of crimson, his blood dripping a bright red as he stared, horrified,  
at the mutilated corpses of eight - or so he assumed, he couldn't quite remember now - guards before him, each one spread across the hallway a considerable bit in pieces. "Wh... What have I done..." muttered Link as the Shadow continued cackling before Link. Suddenly, the beastly shadow began to grow more ... colored, somehow... as he stood before his more heroic alter ego, who couldn't feel any less heroic than he did now.  
---------"You did what you had to." Link heard the icey voice of his dark side say. He looked up from the bloodstained carpets to stare at his shadowy twin, who now inexplicably looked just like Link with a black tunic and slightly paler skin. Link's twin smirked cruelly at him. "Of coarse,  
I've no use for you or the princess any longer. You've done your part"  
--------"What do you mean?" Link said, his voice slightly shaken, warm blood trickling down his body, his heart sinking as the disgusting sensation didn't help his situation at all. --------"By spilling the blood of another mortal, you have completed me." the Shadow said with a cruel smirk, his crimson eyes still shining. "I am the purest essense of your sins, extracted from the broken, so-called hero who now stands before me, his knees shaking as if he were to fall at any given moment"  
---------"Let Ruto go." Link said. "I held my end of the bargain, I did everything you told me to"  
---------"I believe I told you to steal a certain valuable object for me. I also believe you have failed to do so." Dark Link said with another of his obnoxious, demented cackles, his new, more Hylian face twisted into a sadistic smirk. "You have the impudence to refer to yourself as a hero, and you cannot do a task as simple as "Go steal that thing." without ruining it." --------"I would have gotten it with ease if you hadn't messed me up!" Link shot back, the burning rage he had once felt beginning to boil inside of him again.  
--------"Attempt and fail, attempt and fail, that seems to be the only thing I find you capable of doing as of late." the wicked twin said with another laugh. "But then, I really do not require either you, or the princess. I think I shall take her to your house in the Kokiri Forest, get you both out of my hair for a while... probably going to put her to sleep first, though, she puts up too much of a fight for my taste when conscious"  
--------Link found himself chuckling lightly along with his dark side at this,  
before the two glared at eachother once more. --------"Can't handle the thrashings of a girl?" mocked Link. His dark side scowled, but his facial expressions soon twisted back into a wicked smirk.  
--------"I don't know why you care if she's released now..." it said with a small cackle.  
--------"What do you mean"  
--------"Look what you've become, Hylian. You've mercilessly slaughtered eight innocent people loyal to the King -" the Shadow Link said, before quickly interrupting Link's protest, " - don't attempt to justify your sins, you mutilated them all with the ease of a genocidal maniac. The fish woman will be waiting for you in the Kokiri Forest... Go, if she'll take you back. You did well, you earned a few days of peace before I purge the mortal scum from the face of Hyrule." the psychotic shadow said as he faded into the nearby shadows.  
-  
-  
-  
--------Link stood there for a few more moments, continuing to stare down the hallway as blood dripped from his tunic, hating himself more than ever for what he'd done as the cackling of his dark twin still rang in his mind, before deciding it best to leave the castle as swiftly as possible and make sure his alter ego held to his word.  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-------Storm clouds gathered all over Hyrule, blackening the skies as another downpour began. The most bizarre patch of clouds in particular was the swirling mass of darkness over Death Mountain, where, high atop its peaks, you could find a man in black, jagged armor holding up a long, icey, thorn-covered blade, his burned cape flapping wildly in the wind whipping up around the volcano. -  
-  
-------"AT LAST!" Garland cried triumphantly, as he slid the last stone into the remaining empty slot of his blade. The entire sword began flashing blue, green and red, as a feminine, though eerie, voice began to chant some prophecy from out of nowhere. Garland smirked cruelly, ignoring the icey rain and harsh winds around him as he held his shining blade high in the air, awaiting it to finish.  
"ULTIMATE POWER"  
-  
-------"... mortal body consumed, the soul devoured,  
-------The life of its user will be its power"  
-  
-------"What?" Garland said, his triumphant cries cut short.  
-  
-------"Immortality at great cost,  
-------The flesh devoured, emotions lost"  
-  
-------"What're you talking about!" Garland yelled at the invisible sources of the voice as it chanted on; realizing he was in mortal danger, he made to hurl his long-cherished blade off the face of Death Mountain, only to find himself a split-second later enveloped by a large bolt of lightning, screaming in agony as he was blinded by its flash, an unearthly roar echoing with the thunderous boom of the bolt, dust flying around him from the impact.  
-  
-  
-  
-------As the dust faded away, leaving a smoking Garland standing in a small crater collecting water, an eerie groan of agony escaped his lips from the relative darkness of the storm. He took a few steps out of the water, bent over with his tattered cape draped over his body, holding in his hands a burning blade emitting a frosty mist around it, broken at the moment into many smaller pieces of blade along a vinelike whip. The Gerudo Prince slowly staggered around to stare at the puddle of water collecting inside the hole where lightning had just struck.  
-  
-  
-------He chuckled a few times as he stared at his reflection, an eerie green glow escaping from his eyes. The chuckling turned into a soft,  
creepy laughter, which then grew into a bone-chilling cackle that echoed through the stormy skies, lightning flashing to reveal his blackened skeleton. "A small cost for my immortality..." Garland said between cackles, mad with power in his new form, his voice sounding as if three Garlands were speaking at once, one voice more distorted and deeper,  
one raspy & slightly wheezing, and the other much like his normal voice. "Ultimate power!" he continued to laugh madly, throwing his arms up into the air as countless bolts of lightning began to crash around Death Mountain. "Hyrule will be mine at last"  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
-  
End Chapter  
-  
-  
- 


	6. Chapter Six King of Darkness

Disclaimer:  
Guess what? GASP! I don't own Zelda!  
I made a nice RPG Maker 2003 game involving  
Link graphics however, and it is incredibly  
hard. o.O It's not a traditional RPG though,  
more of just a small eight stage project to  
see if I could make games sendable to people who  
don't have RPG Maker 2003 or RPG Player. Sadly,  
no one has test it yet, as I have 56k, and the  
game is 9mb. Mother of all that is magically delicious. o.O;  
Oh, and wow, this is one of the longest chapters in the story  
so far. Go me!

Author's Note:  
Chapter Six... Well uh, let's see, Link's killed innocent  
people - freaking mutilated them uncharacteristically - Garland  
is now a power-hungry Redead of sorts, and Shadow Link looks  
a lot like Link now for some reason. That can't be good. The  
story's moving along fast paced now, perhaps too much I've  
noticed but... yeah. Perhaps a chapter of Epilogy goodness  
will occur if evil is ever vanquished, but for now, we'll  
continue with the short peaceful period of Hyrule (well, for  
Link atleast.), and war between two very powerful evils...  
Apologies if parts of the last chapters have been hard to read,  
it's because DOCUMENT MANAGER BITES!  
sigh It always ruins the way you write a story. So I'll do my  
best to improve upon it this time. Wish me luck.

)Serenade of Water(

Chapter Six  
King of Darkness

The winds of the fierce storm had died away, and the sky was  
mildly lighter now, however it still rained - an almost soothing downpour  
considering how the weather had just been. Hyrule Castle was in an uproar  
about a vicious thief who had cruelly slaughtered eight guards, the Malon  
ranch was waking up to being their morning chores, and the Kokiri children  
continued playing as if nothing was wrong outside of their little forest.

Fortunately, due to Zelda's immense magical powers and Link's  
conquest over Ganondorf, the safety of Hyrule had been restored, and the  
Deku Tree was alive and well, as were his children. Of coarse, chaos seems  
to have returned to Hyrule despite Ganondorf's absense, but for now everyone  
was enjoying a short time of peace - the calm before the storm.

Inside one of the many children's treehouses, one that has been  
empty for atleast a year, a young Zoran princess slowly opened her eyes,  
lying down in the small bed inside the large treetrunk home. "Where..  
where am I...?" she muttered as she slowly sat up on the matress, the bright  
sunlight pouring into the cozy little place nearly blinding. She stretched  
out, groaning slightly. "Stupid shadow thing, kidnapping me without giving  
me so much as a little glass of water..." she fumed as she rubbed her dry  
skin a little bit, her throat feeling as if she hadn't had a drink in  
weeks. The young princess slowly walked out of the treehouse and into the  
small clearing in the forest, putting a hand up to help shield her eyes  
from the sunlight.

"Water!" she cried as soon as she could see, taking off running  
across a few yards of grass before leaping into the river, thoroughly  
enjoying the cool stream as she opened her mouth to take a long drink of it.  
The young princess smiled as she surfaced, feeling refreshed and ready  
for anything as she took off swimming down the river to help wake herself  
up a bit more.

Meanwhile, in the middle of Hyrule Field...

The rain continued pouring as if it would never end, the storm clouds  
seeming to focus directly over the field and out of the Kokiri forests and several  
other places. It was as if a dark shadow had loomed over the Field to make way for  
the coming of the pair of sinister beings heading towards one another at that  
very moment. The wicked, skeletal gerudo prince Garland trudged through the mud  
towards the middle of the field on one side, as the sadistic Shadow Link strode  
across the field from the other, both oblivious to one another at the moment, and  
both wanting to begin their conquest from the center.

And of coarse, as fate would have it, the two finally drew near and saw  
eachother eye to eye.

"The Gerudo imbecile..." Shadow Link said with a scowl as he stopped in his  
tracks, staring up at the new menace that lie before him.  
"The shadow scum..." Garland said in his distorted, raspy voice. "You look  
different since the last time I saw you."  
"As do you, apparently." the shadow said with a smirk. "The years not  
treating you well, I presume?"  
"On the contrary, I've never felt better!" the prince said with a  
loud guffaw. "You, on the other hand, look positively... normal."  
"Looks can be decieving." Shadow Link said with a sadistic smile, revealing  
his teeth to be razor sharp and shaped like a Shark's.  
"I've become far more powerful since the last time we met." Garland  
said with a bony smirk. "I have complete power over the Redead!"

The ground began shaking as countless zombies began climbing out of  
their graves along hyrule field and around all of Hyrule, marching to form an  
army behind Garland. The Gerudo Prince stood proudly as he looked at the  
massive army he'd just summoned. "Hyrule is mine!"

"I quiver in fear." Shadow Link said with a smirk, the shadows of the  
storm clouds above seeming to merge and become a deeper, darker shadow behind  
him, as thousands upon thousands of pairs of shining crimson eyes blinked open  
from the ground, an army of Shadows appearing behind the dark hylian. Garland  
scowled, the green flames inside of his skeletal eye sockets burning with  
rage.

"Your pathetic shadows don't stand a chance! My creatures of the  
redead are immortal!" he spat at Shadow Link.  
"Of coarse you know that this means war." the dark one said with a  
cackle as his armies began cheering in raspy, distorted voices as he drew  
his blade. "My army is every bit as immortal as yours. It appears it will become  
a duel of the generals; once one of us dies, our army will fall and Hyrule will  
belong to the victor."  
"Sounds good to me." Garland said, pulling out his long flaming blade.  
"May the best man win."  
"I plan to." Shadow Link said with a twisted smirk, pulling out his  
still-shadowy blade, the armies of the Redead letting out their howling, tormented  
cries as the armies advanced on one another.

"C'mon, swim faster, we've almost caught up!" one of the Kokiri Children  
shouted to his friends as the small group of children pursued the Zoran princess,  
desperately trying to win a swimming race around the Kokiri River. Ruto looked back  
at the kids, smiling as she kept her pace moderately slow - for her, atleast - so  
the children would stand a chance. She looked forwards and noticed the finish line  
was drawing near, and quickly sped up right as the kids got to her feet, jumping up  
like a dolphin and diving over the finish line.

After a few moments, she surfaced with a proud grin of triumph. "You little  
ones want a rematch?" she said, before opening her eyes and realizing she was being  
ignored - they'd all left her. She blinked and looked around. "C'mon, I was being  
easy on them! Ungrateful little.." she muttered, before realizing almost everyone  
in the Kokiri forest were off hiding behind various things, staring towards the  
entrance to their safe haven. She looked towards the same direction, gasping as she  
saw a young man slowly walking into the villiage covered in crimson stains. "What  
the heck...?" she muttered softly as she stepped out of the river and began slowly  
walking towards the newcomer, her nails extending slowly into short claws in case  
it was a threat. As she drew closer, however, she gasped in horror as she watched  
the stumbling Hylian coming towards her, whom she recognized as...

"Link!" she cried, pouncing Link playfully into the soft grass and hugging  
him, before noticing the dried on blood wasn't just from whatever evils he'd no  
doubt had to face to get here. She felt the warm wound on his shoulder and gasped as  
she sat up, a small crowd of Kokiri standing around them. "What in the name of the  
Trinity happened to you!" she exclaimed.  
"I'm fine.." coughed Link, his weakened voice not helping his lie sound  
any more convincing.  
"You most certainly are NOT!" Ruto said sternly, running over to grab her  
rucksack quickly before rushing back to Link's side, pulling out a small bottle  
filled with red liquid. "Drink this, it'll atleast stop the bleeding."

Ruto held the bottle up to Link's lips as he sipped it, emptying its  
contents quickly before collapsing on the ground once more, breathing heavily.  
"What happened to you?" Ruto asked, taking out a wet washcloth and cleaning  
his wounds.  
"Don't worry about me..." Link said, a bit of strength returned to his voice.  
"Just.. leave me alone, I'm not worth it."  
"What're you talking about?"  
"I'm a murderer!" Link said, raising his voice at Ruto for the first time since  
she had met him. "I'm no hero... not anymore..."  
"Link, just because you had to kill some bad guys doesn't mean--"  
"They weren't bad guys... they were hylian guards..." Link said quietly,  
his voice weaker once more.  
"Well.." Ruto began, her heart sinking as she thought of the Hylian as a  
murderer, quickly trying to think of an excuse to make them both feel better, "...  
well, you had no choice, right? Obviously.. obviously they got in the way of  
whatever that demented shadow creature was making you do..."  
"There's always another way out... I just didn't try hard enough..." Link  
muttered. "I'm nothing but a murderer..."

And as the lost hero sat, miserably defeated by himself, darkness  
engulfed the land of Hyrule as war raged in its massive fields, beginning to  
spread out to other parts of the country. Everywhere you looked, the hideous  
reanimated corpses of the Redead were locked in mindless war against the  
dark shadows, shining red eyes glowing through the shade of the storm clouds.  
And in a certain area that seemed to be moving by the second, the armies seemed  
focused on killing only one of two certain targets who were currently in a fight  
to the death, struggling between themselves and their opposition's minions.

"Your shadows are not so nearly as invincible as you claim." Garland  
said, cracking his whiplike blade and thrashing it around himself, every  
shadow caught in its fiery reach incinerated like normal mortals.  
"Nor is your pitiful walking morgue." Shadow Link said with a smirk,  
slicing another Redead's head off, doing a spinning leap off the head of  
another to snap their neck as he flew towards Garland, dropping bombs to  
decimate a group of zombies that were giving chase. The Gerudo Prince cackled  
madly as he finished twirling his whip around, snapping it together into a  
solid blade just in time to block Shadow Link's obsidian sword. The two swiftly  
began exchanging blows, striking high and low, occasionally having to spin around  
to slaughter meddlers as quick as they could to bring their swords back around  
and continue the duel.

Shadow Link turned around to stab another Redead, slicing it and some of  
its buddies in half quickly as he heard the snapping apart of Garland's sword,  
quickly bringing his ebony blade around to parry as the whip latched around the  
blade, trying to jerk it from Shadow Link's strong grasp as the two generals  
drew closer.

"Give up, you pitiful creature." Garland said, the green flames for eyes  
inside his skull burning fiercely. "I am the son of Ganondorf, and you are  
merely the currupt side of a pathetic hero."  
"I am the pure essense of every dark emotion inside of the Hylian," Shadow  
Link said, his eyes shining crimson as he smirked at Garland's twisted skeletal  
face, "the same one who helped banish your pitiful father from this realm,  
if I recall correctly..."  
"Where he is no doubt gaining power to return with a vengeance!" Garland  
snarled, holding a hand back to send green flames raging in a circle behind  
them, quickly spreading in a shockwave to eradicate both side's armies and  
create a wide dueling ring for just the two of them. He suddenly jerked the  
shadowy blade of the Dark Link away, the blade sticking in the ground away  
from the two as Garland snapped his whip back around, the long blade slithering  
in his hands like a serpent.

Shadow Link scowled, pulling out a long black bow and stringing an arrow  
in the blink of an eye, firing straight at Garland's skull. The insane prince  
cackled slightly as he cracked the whip into the arrow, splintering it into long  
slivers of darkness, cracking the whip back and forth as Shadow Link shot bolt  
after bolt his way, stopping each arrow as fast as they were fired.

As Garland shattered another arrow, he jerked his other arm towards Shadow  
Link, the arm snapping off and shooting at the dark warrior, grabbing his bow and  
using one long, claw-like finger to slice the string. "Wretched skeleton.." Shadow  
Link said in disgust as he grabbed hold of the lost arm, rolling out of the way  
just in time to avoid a long whipping strike from Garland's blade.

"Stop moving, you pathetic creature!" Garland cried as he continued whipping  
his long, fiery blade at the Shadow Link, who kept rolling out of the way just in  
time to barely avoid it. The Gerudo Prince cackled as he quickly swept the ground  
with his whip, expecting to surprise the Shadow to no avail as Shadow Link leapt  
into the air to dodge once more, landing right in front of the Prince.

"Need a hand?" Shadow Link smirked, slapping Garland across his skeletal  
face with his own bony hand. Garland scowled and quickly tried to flail the whip  
around to entanlge Shadow Link, who melted into a pool of darkness on the ground  
quickly as the whip encircled Garland, wrapping around him and breaking his  
skeleton to pieces.

Shadow Link laughed, tossing the blackened arm down with the remaints of  
Garland. "Now, now, pull yourself together. Going to pieces in the middle of  
battle, shameful behavior for a general, wouldn't you say?"

Garland's skull growled as his bones flew into the air, swiftly reassembling  
as he landed on the opposite side of the field, cracking his whiplike sword as  
Shadow Link calmly walked to his and drew it from the ground once more. "You're  
tougher than you look..." growled the prince, "but it won't be enough to save  
your pitiful life."

"Big words for an anorexic prince." said Shadow Link, taking stance with  
his blade and preparing for another round. "Why not get rid of your cowardly  
ring of flames and let us rejoin our loyal minions in their war?"

"It's your funeral." Garland cackled as he snapped his boney fingers,  
the flames fading away as the moans and hissings of the armies drew closer, countless  
red eyes and souless stares piercing through the newfound darkness.  
"Amusing words coming from a walking skeleton." Shadow Link smirked as he  
held his sword backwards, stabbing one of Garland's countless zombies in the gut  
and beginning to slaughter the Redead as his shadows leapt at Garland.

Shadow Link shot his hookshot through several zombies, latching onto them and  
slinging them into their allies, ripping the hook out of them as Garland begain whipping  
the shadowy fiends around him, entangling them and ripping them to shreds two at a  
time, both of them stopping their senseless slaughtering of eachother's endless forces  
to clash their blades together, pushing the two swords fiercly against one another, sparks  
illuminating the dark battlefield. "I refuse to let myself be overpowered by a  
creature of your kind!" Garland snarled, his skeletal features somehow able to twist  
its eye sockets into a glare as their swords slashed against the other's, each one  
turning to hold off the oncoming waves of armies heading towards them before turning  
to begin swiping their blades with one another at blinding speeds.

"And I refuse to be slain by an arrogant, egotistical maniac such as yourself."  
Shadow Link said, his crimson eyes narrowing as he stabbed at Garland, only to have  
his sword enveloped by a whip-like blade and jerked out of his hands. Shadow Link  
smirked. "You like having an unfair advantage, don't you?"  
"If the opportunity presents itself, why not?" Garland said with a cackle,  
swinging his swordwhip around, ready to strike Shadow Link down.  
"Cowardly tactics, but why not, I'll play your game." Shadow Link said with  
a cruel smirk, pulling out a long, shadowy version of Biggoron's Sword. He held the  
blade high in the air, his eyes shining red brighter than any other shadow's on the  
field.

"Ego dico super obscurum voco an eternus exercitus quod attero totus quisnam  
obviam ire mihi!" Shadow Link yelled in an unnatural voice. The darkness of the storm  
seemed to intensify as millions of red eyes shined from out of nowhere, the leader of  
them all continuing his chanting. Garland stared around, millions of pairs of crimson  
eyes staring back. "Crush them." Shadow Link said icily.

A horrific, spine-chilling hiss echoed throughout all of Hyrule, and in moments  
the tides of the battle turned. Every single shadow on the field moved to quickly  
slaughter their horribly outnumbered foes, leaving a large ring open for Garland and  
Shadow Link to duel, countless shining red eyes watching them, the redead not even  
visible from the swarm of darkness overtaking them. Shadow Link grinned sadistically  
as he twirled his massive shadowy blade around to build momentum, taking a few steps  
closer to Garland. "Let's see if you can pull yourself together when I grind every  
last one of your bones to dust."  
Garland growled, slamming his blade into the ground, the long, whiplike blades  
sinking deeper every second. Shadow Link looked at the sword, bewildered at first,  
before yelling in pain as a fiery blade shot up from the ground, stabbing his left  
foot. "Always resorting to cheap trickery..." Shadow Link muttered as the blade sunk  
back into the ground swiftly and, in mere moments, shot out again, just barely missing  
his right leg. The blade continued stabbing and sinking into the ground, Shadow Link  
rolling and leaping away, barely dodging each stab.  
"To claim to have such power, you whine far too much." Garland said with a  
cackle, the edges of his blade licking at Shadow Link's ankle as it ripped back into  
the ground to continue its assault. Shadow Link grinned as he suddenly swung his  
massive sword into the whiplike blade as it sprung from the ground, entangling it  
around the large blade and suddenly jerking it upwards and out of Garland's skeletal  
grasp, the blade wrapping around Shadow Link's as if becoming a part of it.  
"Tonight you die, son of Ganondorf." Shadow Link said with a smirk as he  
drew closer to the Gerudo Prince.  
"Go ahead, kill me if you dare." Garland said with a cackle as Shadow Link  
drew near. "Or are you afraid of what will happen when you do?"  
"You poor, dilluded fool." Shadow Link said with a sadistic grin. "Allow me  
to end your quiet suffering."

And with one swift slice, Garland's skull was split in two, an eerie cackling  
echoing throughout Hyrule as his skull exploded into a ring of flames, forming odd  
symbols in flames all around Garland's corpse.  
"What the..?" Shadow Link muttered as his shadows hissed from the bright  
lights, the green flames flaring up and turning purple as the symbol was completed.  
"What manner of sorcery is this?"

He stared into the flames as he saw a dark figure rising from them to stand  
tall, his eyes shining through the darkness - not the sort of enchanted glow of Garland's,  
or the shining glow of the Shadows, but a deep, sinister glare as the purple flames  
reflected from his gaze.

"You... you can't be here..." Shadow Link said, his calm, cool confidence broken  
for a mere moment as he gazed in horror upon the newcomer.  
"I see planting a seed in this realm before I left has finally paid off..." the  
man said with a dark chuckle as the purple flames faded away. His voice was neither  
raspy, distorted, or unnatural in any way, but something about it sent cold chills  
down your spine none the less. He glared around at the millions of eyes staring back  
at him with a look of disinterest. "It looks like my work was almost done for me... pity  
something interrupted him."  
"Actually, this army of eternal darkness would be mine." Shadow Link said,  
looking down at his sword as Garland's blade broke apart into a smoking hilt with three  
stones implanted in it. "And what do you mean your work was almost done for you? I'm  
sorry to inform you of this, but as you can tell, Hyrule is under new management." Shadow  
Link said with a smirk, much of his army hissing in laughter.  
"Is that a fact?" the tall caped man said, his mouth twisting into a cruel smirk  
as well, holding a hand out to his left as purple flames encircled his arm, shooting  
out in a wide spread of violet fire, incinerating nearly a quarter of the millions of  
shadow creatures. His cruel smirk never faded as Shadow Link glared at him, the caped  
man's face eerily illuminated by the purple flames that lingered where a good portion  
of the army once stood. "I don't think you realise who you're dealing with."  
"Get him!" yelled Shadow Link as the rest of his army hissed and jumped at  
the tall Gerudo, who's hands and feet burst into raging purple flames as he  
began merely fistfighting the shadows, fending them off with an obnoxious ease,  
blast after purple blast exploding in the darkness as he incinerated Shadow Link's  
army ten at a time. "Can't you do anything right?" Shadow Link hissed as he ran  
into the fray, sword in hand, the Gerudo King's cold-hearted laughter filling the  
air with a much more sinister effect than even Garland's once had, lightning  
illuminating the battle with a deafening roar of thunder.

Meanwhile, back in the Kokiri Villiage, the storm had spread and was now  
passing over them, rain showering over the forests as the storm grew a little  
worse. Several of the Kokiri looked troubled in their little villiage, but  
only one person there had bothered following the source of their concern  
into the lost woods. "Link, you can't just run away!" the young woman called into  
the forests. She made another turn in the labrynth of trees, following a faint  
trail of blood, a little of the crimson still staining her pearly white skin.  
"You know I've always beat you in hide and seek!" she continued, swiftly striding  
through the woods in pursuit of the young hylian. Thunder rumbled in the distance  
as she noticed the trail of blood getting a little thicker. "He must be slowing  
down.." Ruto said quietly to herself as she turned another corner and ducked through  
a large, hollow log and into a small clearing, the tall trees overhead the only  
thing keeping the downpour above down to a small sprinkle here. She slowly walked  
into the clearing, lightning flashing to better her view of the area as she saw  
a young blue-clad Hylian sitting on a treestump, slumped over with his head  
buried in his arms. Ruto shook her head as she slowly walked towards him, hating  
to see him this way.

The zoran princess sat down beside Link, patting his back softly. "Link,  
just because the weather's bad you don't have to cry about it." she said, trying  
to cheer him up a bit. She heard a slight chuckle escape the Hylian, but other  
than that Link remained quiet. After a long, awkward silence, Ruto spoke up  
once more.  
"If you hadn't defended yourself, you would have died. I can tell that  
from those wounds..."  
"But I should have been able to do something to escape them... I didn't  
have to kill them like the shadow said..." Link muttered.  
"So he did make you kill them..." Ruto said with a sigh. "'Kill them or  
die here,' he probably said." she finished, trying to immitate an evil voice  
similar to Shadow Links, but failing somewhat to do anything but make Link almost  
laugh once more.  
"No.. he didn't threaten my life." Link said, sobering up from his  
near laughter once again. "He threatened yours."  
"He what?" Ruto said, slightly surprised.  
"He said if I didn't kill them all," Link continued, keeping his face  
hidden, "he would kill you..."

There was another long silence as Ruto muttered something along the  
lines of "I'd like to see him try," before she spoke up again.  
"Well you know what? I'm glad." she said, causing Link to finally  
look up at stare at her, bewildered.  
"Glad? You're glad I slaughtered eight innocent people who did nothing  
but defend their king!" Link exclaimed.  
"No, but I'm glad if that ... thing ... was going to make you do it  
anyway, he threatened my life instead of yours."  
"Why?" Link said, as confused as ever.  
"Think of how hard it was for you, you're still torn up..." Ruto said  
softly. "If he hadn't threatened me.. you would have died to prevent  
hurting them..."  
"Atleast I would have taken him down with me.." Link said, looking down  
at the ground.  
"That doesn't matter, I never would have seen you again!" she said a bit  
louder. "I'd never get to tackle you, never get to tease you about your pointy  
ears..." she said, her voice breaking just slightly. ".. I'd never get to have  
any more adventures with you..."

Link smiled a bit as he looked up at Ruto again. "I guess I'm kind of glad it  
happened this way too... I'd never get to say--"  
"I love you?" Ruto interrupted with a slight smile. Link blinked, his  
face a bit reddened.  
"Um... th-that ... how did you.."

Ruto chuckled a bit. "You never thought it was odd how the rest of my  
people stared at us? You're an open book." she laughed a bit, brushing a bit  
of Link's blond locks out of his face.  
"And you?" Link said as he began drawing closer to Ruto's face with a grin,  
another soft rumbling of thunder filling the forests.  
"I think you know the answer to that." Ruto said with a playful smirk,  
closing her eyes as she slid her arms around Link's neck.  
"Well, you know I'm a very bad guesser..." Link said quietly as his arms  
found their way around her hips, their lips meeting as they embraced. Link's  
felt like he was floating as he felt Ruto's lips brush against his own, and  
the few seconds that passed felt like an eternity he wished would never end--

"Very touching.." coughed a familiar voice from the entrance to the  
clearing, the pair abruptly ending their moment to turn and look at Link's evil  
twin once again. The Shadow Link had an annoying smirk on his lips, seeming  
completely unmoved by the few cuts on his body with a little bit of black blood  
trickling out. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt this example of raging hormones,  
but Hyrule is rather doomed at the moment."  
"Why are you always making life harder for me?" Link scowled, looking over  
at his alter ego.  
"For once, I'm not here to annoy you." Shadow Link replied.  
"Really? I couldn't tell." Ruto said, glaring at the shadow.  
"I came to inform you Garland is dead." Shadow Link said with a slightly  
wicked grin. "Pathetic to the very end."

"And let me guess, now you're taking over Hyrule, blah blah blah." Link  
said with a sigh, regretfully breaking his embrace on Ruto to pull out his  
blade.  
"No, Ganondorf is." Shadow Link muttered, annoyed.  
Link blinked and stared at his other self. "Ganondorf's dead.." Link  
said in disbelief.  
"No, he was sealed away in another realm by the Sages - Just how bad  
is your memory?" Shadow Link asked with a smirk. "I was scarcely even there  
and I remember better than you.. Upon Garland's death, the Gerudo King was  
summoned from wherever he was trapped and now he's going to 'reclaim what  
is rightfully his,' whatever that means."  
"Hyrule Castle..." Link said, sheathing his sword as Ruto stood  
beside him. "We've got to stop him."  
"My thoughts exactly. I have grown rather bored of being just another  
sinister, monologue obsessed psychopath bent on global domination." Shadow  
Link said with a light cackle as he extended a hand. "Let bygones be bygones?"  
Link and Ruto both glared at the dark link, who kept his usual smirk as  
he seemed unmoved by the glares - although he didn't seem as wicked, he still  
had a certain darkness to him that couldn't be trusted.  
"Not surprising I suppose." Dark Link shrugged as he put his hand down,  
the other two walking past him towards Kokiri Villiage. Shadow Link turned and  
followed them. "But considering Link is a part of me, I must say I'm happy  
for you two."  
"Why suck up to us now?" Ruto said, looking back at the dark link. "You've  
done enough as it is."  
"Just appreciating a romantic moment in a dark time." Shadow Link shrugged  
once more. "The point is, we now have a common enemy." he said, holding up one  
of his bloodied arms - the wounds were slowly healing themselves, but the ebony  
blood probably wouldn't stop flowing until they were sealed completely. "I won't  
rest until I see the arrogent king of the gerudo dead."  
"Something we have in common I guess." Link said as they left the lost  
woods and began heading towards the exit to the Kokiri Village.  
"Oh, you might want to bring your larger sword." Shadow Link advised.  
"I can barely pick that thing up now!" Link exclaimed, looking back at  
his shadow.  
"What larger sword?" Ruto asked, confused.  
"Biggoron's hand-forged blade." Link said, looking towards his house. "I'll  
do fine with the Kokiri Sword."  
"A knife compared to Ganondorf's blade." Shadow Link cackled at the memory  
of Kokiri's treasure. "The Biggoron's Sword is barely as big!"  
"It might be a good idea, I hate to agree." Ruto said as the shadow swiftly  
leapt into Link's house, leaping back down with a long sword wrapped in cloth. Ruto's  
eyes widened as Shadow Link unwrapped the blade. "Gannon's sword is THAT big?"  
"Bigger, actually." Shadow Link said, strapping the big sword to Link's back,  
who strained to hold it up for a second as he got used to the weight again. "This  
will even the odds however, as me and my alter ego are both excellent swordsman."  
Shadow Link smirked a bit. "Of coarse, I'm better."  
"We'll have to see about that once this is all over." Link said with a smirk  
of his own as the three left for the dark, war-ravaged Hyrule Field, lightning  
flashing in the distance as a dark cloud swirled over Hyrule Castle.

End Chapter

(A/N: Things always go from bad to worse, don't they? Link beat Ganondorf  
before, and now there's two Links and a ticked off Zoran princess, so it'll  
be easy, right? That's what you think...)


	7. Chapter Seven The Battle for Hyrule

Disclaimer:  
I don't own Zelda. Nope.  
It's the sad truth. And well, even  
though the indentions are messed up, I've  
come up with somewhat of a compromise with  
Document Manager when it comes to paragraph  
spacing. So we'll keep that truce going. With  
dashes for indention. D You will fall yet,  
o fiendish document manager!  
Maybe if I'd just learn more HTML...

-

Author's Note:  
------Not much to note here. Oh, for those curious,  
Super Smash Brothers was a big inspiration on this story.  
Shadow Link's new appearance, for instance, is Link's  
Black alternate costume - my favorite character to play as.  
And Ganondorf's new powerful form is, needless to say, based  
on Super Smash Brothers, sword and all (one of his victory  
poses is him swinging a giant sword around). Garland.. well,  
he's just Ganondorf's son. Yep. And this chapter is officially  
the longest in the series. I believe strongly in going out with  
a bang - though I may write a sequel. Or atleast a long epilogy  
time lapse to advance years of peace. Hmm. Write in your review  
if you'd read the story should I continue it or write a sequel.  
I may or may not write it either way, but I'd like to know if you  
people even like it. p

Added Update: I fixed that little glitch where I called Ganon  
"Garland." Apologies, much of my writing is done very late. ;  
Do you think I should write the sequel as a second story entirely,  
or add chapters to this one?

-

-

()Serenade of Water()  
----Chapter Seven----  
--The Battle for Hyrule--

-

-

------A full moon rose high above Hyrule, casting an eerie light  
over the fog-covered land below. The storm clouds had passed away,  
except for a swirling cloud of darkness above the tainted black walls of  
Ganondorf's reclaimed castle. The entire country became enslaved as soon  
as Ganondorf returned to his sinister throne, his heartless Stalfos knights  
returning from their graves to defend his new keep. And the only three people  
foolish enough to challenge the rutheless Gerudo King...

------... were currently walking through the chilly field blanketed in fog  
known as Hyrule Field, all but the darkest one shivering from the cold.  
----"Can't take a little chill?" Shadow Link cackled, his voice echoing through  
the unnatural silence. Not even so much as a cricket's chirp could be heard  
any longer, except for the occasional ghostly howls of the wind.  
------"No, unlike you, we actually feel things." Ruto said between chattering  
teeth. She was currently wearing her red Magician's Cape, but it was far too  
thin to protect from the cold.  
------"I would expect more from the both of you." Shadow Link mocked. "The Zoran  
Domain has got to be chilly in the winter, and Link, you call yourself a wandering  
hero, you can't take a little winter wind?"  
------"Do you want us to kill you?" Link said with a shiver. Shadow Link cackled  
a bit louder.  
------"I'm immune to this harsh weather, do you honestly think you'd win at this  
large of a disadvantage?" Shadow Link said, before stopping in front of the other  
two and pulling out his giant, shadowy blade.  
------"What is it?" Link asked, pulling out his Goron-forged blade.  
------"can't you feel it?" Shadow Link whispered, sounding like he was almost  
getting a sick thrill from something. "The torment of lost souls... Ganondorf is  
aware of our presence, and he has sent his unholy Stalfos to stop us."  
------"Just what we need..." Ruto sighed as she reached into her cloak to pull  
out a pair of magic wands, one red and one blue. Dry cackling filled the desolate  
wasteland that was once Hyrule Field as skeletal warriors began rising from the  
ground, their eyes shining with dark power through their skulls as they surrounded  
the three adventurers, outnumbering them roughly thirty to three.  
------"This won't be a problem." Shadow Link said with a wicked grin. "All followers  
of the imbecile gerudo will perish."

-

------Shadow Link leapt and began swinging his dark blade around as the Stalfos drew  
near, Link running into battle as Ruto held her blue rod out, the tip beginning to  
glow with magical power.  
------"How many of these things am I going to have to destroy in my life?" Link  
sighed as he slammed his sword down on one of the boney monsters, shattering it  
to pieces in moments as he swung it in a wide circle around himself to slash back  
any advancing Stalfos nearby.  
------"More than either of us cares to deal with." Shadow Link said with a sigh  
of his own as he swung his sword fluidly through Stalfos after Stalfos, breaking  
their skeletal frames in different ways.

------The air around them grew even colder as Ruto began firing streams of magic  
at their foes, freezing many of the Stalfos solid before the rod's glow began to  
fade away, drained for the time being. Ruto smirked, still chattering her teeth  
from the cold as she ran up to the many frozen skeletons, kicking them to pieces.  
"Don't put up much of a fight, do they?" Shadow Link cackled as one of the Stalfos  
tried to block his swing only to be broken into a pile of bones.  
------"Thirty to one was hardly a fair fight." Link said with a smirk. "They should have  
atleast had a hundred."

-

------As if the very words had caused it to happen, countless more Stalfos began to  
emerge from the ground all over Hyrule Field. The three heroes looked around them, their  
newfound ease quickly broken as they saw skeletal fiends continuing to arise from the  
ground as far as the eye could see. "You just had to say something, didn't you?" Shadow  
Link hissed.  
------"When I clear a path, we all run..." Ruto whispered softly as she pulled out  
a small golden medallion with flames engraved on both sides, emitting a faint glow.  
------"What's the little princess going to do to clear a path through these?" Shadow  
Link scoffed as Ruto held up the medallion. The golden object began shining as suddenly  
flames shot out of it, spiraling over the heroes heads and forming somewhat of a shield  
around them. "Run!" Ruto yelled as they began to run while the medallion continued  
to shoot flames at the stalfos around them, explosions beginning to shake Hyrule Field  
as its magic continued.

-

------"Gotta get me one of those..." Shadow Link muttered as they ran towards Hyrule  
Castle under the protection of the magic, pillars of flames spiraling around them to  
destroy any who got too close.

------"It won't last much longer, we have to hurry!" Ruto said as they ran as fast  
as they could, the Stalfos chasing after them relentlessly as the Bombos medallion  
began to flicker, its power fading away.

-

-

------Within five minutes, the group had reached the closed gates to Hyrule Castle,  
trapped between the moat and the army of Stalfos behind them that were quickly  
catching up. "Shadow!" Link shouted, pulling out his hookshot and standing to the left  
a little. "Use your hookshot and aim for the top right corner!"  
------The shadow smirked, pulling out his own black hookshot. "So the hero finally  
decides to regain his cunning. It's about time you had a bright idea."  
------"Ruto, cover us!" Link said over the howls of the Stalfos as both Links took  
aim, firing their hookshots into the drawbridge on opposite corners.  
------"Got it." Ruto replied, pulling out a bag of magic dust as the skeletons drew  
near. She began sprinkling the dust on the skeletons, turning each one into various  
objects, some slimes, some bushes, others into vicious berserk zombies that quickly  
turned on their allies and began fighting untill they were ripped apart.

------"Pull!" Link shouted out to his twin as the two began to pull back on the hook-  
shots, the drawbridge creeking as it shook open, very slowly giving way to the twin  
Hylians. Ruto quickly pocketed her empty sack of magic powder, pulling out an orange  
cane and waving it around, large orange blocks popping up swiftly all around them to  
form a small fortress, the stalfos at first fruitlessly whaling upon the large blocks  
with their rusted blades before they began using themselves to build staircases to climb  
to the top.

------"Hurry up!" Ruto exclaimed as she leapt up and kicked one of the blocks, shattering  
a stairway of skeletons as it fell as Ruto hit the ground and quickly waving her  
cane to replace the lost wall.

------"We're going as fast as we can!" Shadow Link hissed as he jerked harder on his  
hookshot, the drawbridge not even halfway down yet. "Use your bloody fire rod on  
the chains!"  
------"I-I was planning on doing that as soon as I made sure the stalfos wouldn't be  
giving us trouble!" Ruto said, flustered as she pulled out her red staff, annoyed that  
the shadow had a good idea. She shot off a spread of fireballs, several hitting each  
of the chains, beginning to melt them as the Stalfos started climbing up on top of the  
small wall of blocks. "Withdraw your hookshot!" Shadow Link continued to command, jerking  
his own hook out of the bridge and pulling out his sword, leaping on top of Link's head  
and jumping up higher, spinning and using the flat of his sword to hammer the bridge,  
the impact shattering the molten-hot chains just as Link got his hookshot back.

------"Run!" Ruto screamed to the others as she ran by them in her red cape, the  
Stalfos landing with wicked, skeletal grins as the two Links soon followed Ruto  
into the castle city. Link tossed a few bombs behind him as they ran, blowing the  
bridge up to prevent the stalfos from following as they ran towards Ganondorf's  
twisted castle where Hyrule's royal palace once stood. The entire city was crawling  
with the redead, but the reanimated corpses were too slow to keep up with the pair of  
heroes (and one who couldn't seem to decide who's side to be on) as they ran past the  
Temple of Time and into the castle grounds, which were mostly just a large, volcanic  
crator now, Ganondorf's sinister keep hovering above on a floating mass of land.

------"Now what?" Shadow Link scoffed as he stared up at the dark castle up  
above.  
------"Any magical things that could help us?" Link asked Ruto, who started looking  
through the bag under her cloak to see. "Like... wings or something?"  
------"The only thing I could think of is to make a staircase with this," she said,  
pulling out an orange cane, "but I've never built a bridge with no supports before..."  
------"Well isn't that just perfect." Shadow Link said with a sigh as he looked away  
to see six more Stalfos with armor this time heading towards them. "Do your little  
bridge sorcery, fish girl, me and my considerably less powerful alter ego will  
cover you." the dark hylian said, pulling out his onyx blade and taking a few steps  
towards the skeletons.  
------"Considerably less powerful? What's that supposed to mean?" Link protested,  
pulling out Biggoron's Sword to join his twin as Ruto waved her orange staff around,  
carefully creating block after block to try to make an ample support for a long  
bridge to the castle.

------"It means you are a worthy adversary in a duel of blades," Shadow Link said  
as he clashed swords with two of the Stalfos at once, swinging his gigantic dark  
blade as if it weighed no more than a feather, "but you are still somewhat inferior  
to me, as you can tell."  
------"Well you have an unfair advantage, your sword's made of shadows!" Link said  
with a sigh as he smashed off a Stalfos' head, the body of the headless knight  
continuing to fight on without its skull, before having to quickly pull his sword back  
to block three blade assaults at once.  
------"One of the perks of having an open mind to evil." smirked Shadow Link as  
he jabbed his blade through the chestplate of a stalfos, knocking off much of its  
rib cage as he jerked his sword out to smack away the legs of a skeletal knight behind  
him as he ducked to avoid a wide swing from yet another of the unholy soldiers.

------"Ruto, how goes the bridge?" Link called out as he leapt to avoid the low sweeping  
swing of the legless Stalfos, glancing towards Ruto to see she had already progressed  
roughly a quarter of the way towards the castle, having figured out a good way to stack  
the blocks to keep them well supported upon eachother, using a little heat to weld them  
together with her fiery rod. "Be careful!"  
------"Keep me covered and I'll be fine." Ruto said calmly as she kept working on her  
orange bridge as the pair of heroes continued slashing apart the stalfos.

-

------"Don't take your own sweet time over there, princess." Shadow Link said as he  
looked off towards the city. "The redead may be slow but they're catching up to us  
finally... and there's a lot of them."

------Link glanced back as he smashed another of the stalfos into a pile of bones,  
the readead getting closer every second. "They're just redead, we can slaughter them  
all with ease..." Link laughed as his alternate self busted the last of the STalfos  
into a pile of bones to mix with the rest.  
------"Don't tell me my ego is rubbing off on your innocent mind." Shadow Link said  
with a cackle. "How's the little mermaid's bridge coming along?"

------"A little over halfway there now!" Ruto shouted, before continuing to swiftly  
but carefully work on her pathway to the castle. Link and Shadow Link took stance as  
the redead drew near, but before the undead Hylians could get in attacking range, they  
suddenly stopped, as if someone was commanding them.

------"What's with them?" Link said, blinking, a little bewildered.  
------"The tragic side effects of smoking weed, my friend." Shadow Link cackled, knocking  
one's head off with his hook shot as they all continued to stand motionless. Then, all  
of a sudden, the redead began to wail in agony, their eerie voices howling and echoing  
all over Hyrule, their dead skin beginning to bubble as they melted into a pool of rotting  
flesh that slowly drifted into the pile of Stalfos bones.

------"What the heck is going on?" Link said, a little disgusted at the sight of it,  
before purple flames errupted around the pile of molten flesh and broken bones, creating  
a brilliant purple pillar of fire.

------"The Gerudo fool is obviously using his sorcery..." Shadow Link hissed. "One  
should not tamper with nature as he is right now..."  
------"What's he doing!" Link shouted over the roaring flames.  
------"He's creating a creature of his own design from the flesh and bones of his  
fallen minions!" Shadow Link yelled back, the purple flames fading away to reveal  
a hideous, disgusting black creature before them.

-

-----It was a little over twice as large as your average human being, having a similar  
build of a human body with heavy armor covering it. Its upper arms were somewhat skinny,  
somehow supporting two massive forearms, each with five long, jagged, boney claws  
protruding out of them. Its chest bulged out slightly, though from the stomache down  
it was nearly skeletal, its body covered in rotting flesh except for a long, vertebrae  
looking tail with one of the Stalfos' blades jutting out of the tip. One gigantic  
sword forged from the five remaining blades of the fallen Stalfos was sticking out of the  
abomonation's back, and its jackal-like head had an array of long skeletal horns that  
roughly resembled rib cage bones sticking out of the back of it. The creature opened  
its shining purple eyes to glare at its newfound prey, opening its mouth  
as countless agonized screams sounded from its twisted form.

------Link and Shadow Link stared at the tainted mess of flesh and bones for a few  
moments, their jaws dropped in awe before they took fighting stance once more and began  
walking backwards towards Ruto's bridge, making sure they kept an eye on the creature  
before them, who at the moment was slowly crawling towards them on all fours, glaring  
at them as if waiting for an opportune moment to pounce and rip one of them to shreds.

------The pair of Hylians stepped onto the bridge and slowly began walking across it  
as Ruto, oblivious to their plight, continued trying to finish it, a little over three  
quarters done by this time. The creature snarled at them, revealing a set of long,  
jagged fangs, its tail waving ominously back and forth as if longing to taste their  
blood, before it suddenly quickened its pace. Link and his shadow took off running  
across the long bridge, the creature leaping onto it and chasing after them, quickly  
catching up.

------"Try to knock it off the edge!" Link commanded to his alter ego as the two stopped  
a quarter of the way up the bridge, readying their swords just in the nick of time,  
the creature pouncing Link and pinnng him to the bridge, snarling and growling viciously  
at the Hylian hero, the only thing seperating Link's neck from the wicked fangs of the  
monster being Link desperately holding the flat of his sword out to hold back the  
beast. Link looked angrily at his other self, who was just standing there with a smirk  
on his face. "Don't just stand there... do something..!" Link yelled through the  
strain of holding back the monster, the creatures tail raising up and preparing to  
strike him if he didn't escape soon.  
------"I merely thought the adorable little abomination of nature was showing its  
affection towards you." cackled the shadow, still doing nothing.  
------"Ha ha, very funny, this is serious!" Link yelled, eyeing the blade on the tail  
nervously.  
------"I couldn't agree more, now drop your sword and let the poor little puppy give you  
a few licks." Shadow Link continued to cackle. Apparently, he hadn't gained any amount  
of sanity over time. Link yelled as he saw the blade-tipped tail of the behemoth dive  
for him, but a dark blade quickly extended to repel the sword as Shadow Link stood over  
the fallen Hylian. THe monster glared at him and decided to leave his current prey,  
leaping away from Link to tackle his alter ego. The Hylian stood up, brushing himself  
off and calmly walked towards his pinned twin, who was now in the exact same position  
he had just been in, ebony blade holding back the monster and everything. Link stood  
beside the pair and gave a smirk of his own as Shadow Link moved his head back and forth,  
barely dodging the stabs of the tailblade.

------"Seems he likes you more than me."  
------"What can I say, I have a way with animals." the dark one said, not a hint of panic  
in his voice. Before anyone knew what happened, Shadow Link melted into nothing but a  
shadow once more and appeared behind the creature in an instant, leaping up on its back  
to drive his blade into it, the jackal screaming in agony as it reared back, desperately  
clawing at its own back to try to rip off Shadow Link. The shadow continued to cackle  
as he clung to the monster, driving his blade in deeper.

------"Almost done!" Ruto shouted out, still not looking back to notice her companions  
were fighting for their lives, focused solely on completing the bridge as fast as  
possible. Link began slashing at the monster's now exposed abdomen, but quickly had  
to begin blocking as the beast decided to use his claws on Link instead. The long  
bladelike tail lashed out and wrapped itself around Shadow Link, its blade cutting his  
cheek as it jerked him away, tossing him aside. The dark hylian took out his hookshot  
and fired it off, hitting the bridge successfully and quickly beginning to climb it,  
wishing he hadn't left his sword lodged in the monstrosity's back as his heroic twin  
continued trying to fend off the beast above. "Let my guard down..." he muttered  
angrily as he halted his climb to begin using his hookshot to swing back and forth,  
gaining momentum...

-

------Meanwhile, on the bridge, Link had the beast at a standstill, though at the  
moment he was having to use his blade solely to defend himself. The monster roared as  
it continued trying to paralyze its prey, before suddenly Shadow Link hurled himself  
over the bridge with his hookshot, kicking the monster in the face and making it staggar  
to the edge of the bridge, losing its balance and nearly falling off.

------"Glad you decided to finally show your sorry self." Link said sarcastically as he  
spun his blade around, smacking the monster with the flat of it to knock it off of the  
bridge, sending it to its doom, the beast's sword flying out of its claws into the  
fiery abyss below.  
------"Glad you decided to finally make yourself useful." Shadow Link smirked, glancing  
over to notice Ruto was working on the last few feet of her bridge. "We'd best not keep  
her royal highness waiting lest we invoke her tomboyish wrath."

-

------Deciding to ignore the comment, Link nodded in agreement and they began to walk  
towards Ruto. Though suddenly, they felt the blocks under them tremble slightly.  
------"... is the bridge collapsing?" Link exclaimed in panic, looking around.  
------"Those sounded like claws attaching to me..." SHadow Link said, before he realized  
what was going on. "Run."  
------"What?"  
------"RUN, YOU IMBECILE!" Shadow Link exclaimed as he took off running, a long, boney  
tail jabbing straight through the bridge where Shadow Link once stood, missing him by  
mere inches. Link gasped and took off running after his shadow, the tail sinking back  
into the bridge as the monster pursued the heroes, scurrying under the bridge, its  
tail springing out to nearly impale them every second in the blink of an eye, the  
heroes just narrowly acting fast enough to avoid the probably-fatal assaults.

------They neared the end of the bridge, a gap a decent many feet wide remaining as  
Ruto tried to finish it. She heard footsteps and turned around just in time for Link  
to grab ahold of her, sweeping her off her feet in an instant as the two Hylians leapt  
off the bridge, Link holding tightly to Ruto, the bladed tail lashing out one last time  
and stopping a mere inch short of hitting Ruto between the eyes.

------The zoran princess shrieked as they landed on Ganondorf's floating island,  
looking back as the battered bridge crumbled a little, making a much larger gap between  
the bridge and the island, the hideous beast crouching underneath the bridge, only  
a silhouette with shining purple eyes that glared at them viciously.

------"Hah! Try to get us now, you stupid creature!" Link shouted out in mockery at  
the monster. It roared in combination of the agonized wails of the redead, sprouting  
long, batlike wings, leaping off the bridge to fly like a rocket straight towards them.  
------"Must you always jinx us?" Shadow Link said, annoyed, as he ran into the castle,  
Link and Ruto jumping up to follow him. They turned and began climbing stairs just in  
time for the beast to come slamming through the main entrance, smashing a rather large  
hole in the wall as it glared around in search for its prey. Shadow Link looked back,  
then stopped, Ruto and Link halting shortly after realizing he had. They exchanged  
glaces as Shadow Link turned to face them with another enigmatic smirk.  
------"You two go ahead, there's no better time than now to play the hero." he  
said with a cackle, the beast snarling as it paced around below, still not noticing  
the trio. "Besides," continued the shadow, "I cannot abandon my faithful sword."  
------"You'll probably die if you go down there, you know." Link warned.  
------"Not like I have anything to live for." Shadow Link said with another demented,  
out of place cackle. "Though if I'm alive when this is all over, you'll owe me big."  
With that, he leapt off the stairway with a yell, landing on the monster's back and  
ripping his sword out of its rotting flesh, the jackal roaring and flinging him off  
of its back as the fight downstairs began. "GO!" Shadow Link yelled at the two as he  
fended off a few claw swipes with his sword. Link and Ruto nodded and took off up  
the stairs as fast as they could, Shadow Link leaping over the monster to slice its  
wings off as he landed behind it.

-

------The two heroes swiftly climbed Ganondorf's tower, still hearing the howls of  
the Jackal and the battle cries of Shadow Link echoing behind them. "I can't believe  
he did that." Ruto said as they dashed across a floor of the tower, reaching another  
flight of stairs to continue their ascent. "Isn't he supposed to be evil?"  
------"Well, he did need his sword back." Link said with a bit of a laugh. "I don't  
think he's as heartless as he wants us to think, but he's still evil."  
------"Guess you're right... how tall is this tower?" Ruto said with a bit of a whine,  
watching the walls as they ran to look at the countless stained glass windows, most of  
which featured the Gerudo King now.  
------"It shouldn't be too much further..." Link replied as they dashed across another  
empty room to reach the final, excrutiatingly long flight of stairs.

-

-

-

------"Is this the best you can do!" Shadow Link said with a smirk as he landed  
from being hurled off the creature again, licking a bit of his own black blood off  
his cheek. The jackal growled and turned around to face him, walking to him on its  
hind legs almost like a human, flexing its boney claws. The Dark Hylian had several  
cuts along his body once more, and while they were slowly regenerating, he was getting  
plenty more gashes to more than make up for the few healed ones. "Come on!"

------Shadow Link began spinning his blade around once more as the jackal drew  
near. The monster swung one of its massive claws at the dark Hylian, who jumped up  
and dug his blade deep into its rotting flesh, ripping out a chunk of decaying skin.  
The monster growled in agony as it lashed out with its other claw, only to have it  
impaled with Shadow Link's sword. The shadow cackled as he ripped his blade out of the  
side of its right arm, taking its thumb claw as the behemoth's tail quickly lunged out  
to stab the dark one.  
------The shadow did a backflip off of the monster's left claw, slicing it clean off  
its body as the monster's tail impaled its own severed hand. The abomination screamed,  
tormented redead crying in agony as it lifted its tail back, the claw stuck to it. The  
severed claw slowly melted into a puddle of broken bones and bubbling flesh on the  
ground. Shadow Link smirked as the Jackal viciously glared at him, but his smirk quickly  
faded as the monster lashed out with its remaining claw, grabbing Shadow Link and pinning  
him in its sharp, boney grasp. "Wretched... creature..." Shadow Link groaned, trying  
to get a good enough grip on his sword to stab the monster's wrists. It roared in his  
face before slamming him into the cold stone floor, cracking a large place in it, Shadow  
Link coughing up a small spray of black blood.  
------"Imbecile!" he cackled despite the black blood dripping down his lips, swinging  
his sword swiftly to sever the creature's remaining claw through the elbow. The beast  
reared back, roaring in pain as it held up its arms, long broken bones jutting out of  
them. Shadow Link staggared up with a smirk, licking some of the blood off of his  
lips. In the blink of an eye, the monster lunged at Shadow Link with a roar, pouncing  
him to the ground and lashing out at him with his tail over and over again in rage.  
Shadow Link quickly jabbed his blade into the beasts chest, ear-piercingly loud screeches  
of the redead echoing throughout the tower as the beast and all it was made of cried  
out in agony, its tail never stopping its berserk assault for a moment.

------"If I go down..." Shadow Link said with mad laughter as he twisted his blade  
through the monster's flesh, ripping it apart, the beast's tail stabbing his arms, legs  
and wherever it could reach, "I'll atleast have the pleasure of knowing.. I took you  
down with me.."

------The monster suddenly burst into flames for a mere moment, and just as quickly as  
it had combusted, the jackal was nothing more than a pile of ashses. Shadow Link dropped  
his sword with a dry chuckle, breathing heavily and a little strained. "It feels nice..  
to play the hero for a change..." he said, slowly staggaring towards the steps, his  
vision blurry, seeming to have forgotten his blade now. "They'd better not start the  
party.. without me..." he muttered with a weak cackle as he took a few steps up the  
long winding staircase, before collapsing on top of them, a small stream of darkness  
pouring down the few steps he'd climbed.

-

-

-

-

------Link and Ruto climbed the last few steps of Ganondorf's massive tower, walking  
into a much fancier top room with nice carpets, silk curtains and large exotic  
tapestries, a pipe ogan sounding out a slow, eerie tune as a man with dark armor and  
a long flowing cape sat across the room playing it. "Ganondorf.." Link muttered,  
glaring at the gerudo king before him.  
------At first the sorceror seemed to be ignoring him as he finished his song, before  
slowly standing and turning around to face the duo with a wicked smirk. "I knew it  
wouldn't be long until I ran into you again."  
------"Likewise," Link muttered as he glared at his arch foe, drawing Biggoron's  
blade. "This time you won't walk away."  
------"I didn't exactly walk away last time, your little girlfriend sealed me  
away from this realm!" Ganondorf said with a scowl. Ruto gasped and looked over  
at Link, putting her hands on her hips and giving him a mean look.  
------"GIRLFRIEND? Is there something you should tell me, Link!"

------"Zelda isn't my girlfriend!" Link shouted in his defense. Ganondorf snickered  
as the other two bickered for a few minutes, before drawing his sword. "I thought  
this was going to be a duel of swords, not a love quarrel." he said with a twisted  
smirk.  
------"Look, I'll tell you the whole story after this." Link said, stepping towards  
Ganondorf. "Go back and see if my shadow is alive. He might be useful, and if he's  
dead you can still bring his sword."  
------Ruto let out a sigh of frustration as she started running down the stairs.  
"You owe me after this for all these stairs, Link!" she cried back at him as  
she ran. Ganondorf chuckled darkly.  
------"Good thinking, boy. I wouldn't want my lover to see me humiliated and  
slaughtered, either."  
------"Actually I wanted to spare her the sight of me mutilating you!" Link said  
with a smirk of his own, running up to Ganondorf and swinging his heavy blade.  
Ganondorf quickly brought up his own with one hand, blocking Link's massive swing  
and quickly kicking him in the gut. The Hylian grunted in pain before Ganondorf  
spun around and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying backwards onto the floor.  
------"Pity you don't have your precious master sword anymore." Ganondorf said  
with a laugh as he walked towards Link, the hylian standing up and getting ready  
to fight once more. Ganon swung his sword around a few times at the air blarringly  
fast, before stopping it in an instant by his side. "You can barely handle that  
blade now, what makes you think you can stop me?"

------"I did it once, I can do it again." Link said calmly as he lashed out at  
Ganondorf's feet. The Gerudo King jumped at just the right moment to land on the  
flat of Link's sword, plunging his own giant blade into the middle of Biggoron's,  
snapping it in half. Link blinked and held up half of a Goron Blade, sighing as  
he looked at the jagged edge.  
------"You should thank me." Ganondorf laughed as the other half of Link's blade  
burst into purple flames and melted. "I made your sword lighter."

------"Guess I should." Link said, beginning to lash out at Ganondorf much quicker  
than before, the Gerudo King still bringing up his massive blade to block each and  
every swing Link threw at him. "Why am I the only one who can't swing around giant  
swords at incredible speeds?"  
------"Because you're nothing but a little boy." Ganondorf said, holding his sword  
up to block another swing, before dropping down to duck another swing and sweeping  
a foot under Link, kicking him to the ground. Link tried his best to get up as  
fast as possible, but Ganon quickly kicked him back into the ground, bringing another  
foot up to kick Link's sword away. Ganondorf plunged his sword down at Link's chest,  
the Hylian rolling out of the way just in time to avoid the giant blade as it slammed  
into the stone floor of the tower room, purple sparks flying out of it. Link jumped  
away from Ganon and onto his feet as the Gerudo King jerked his blade out of the stone  
floor, smirking cruelly at the young hylian.  
------"Not even five minutes of battle and you've already been disarmed." Ganon said  
in a scolding tone of voice. "For shame, boy. I expected more of you."

-  
------Thunder rumbled outside as rain rattled against the stained glass windows,  
Link looking to see that, unfortunately, his blade had gone out of one of said  
windows and fallen out of the tower completely. Just his luck. Ganondorf laughed  
a little bit as he advanced towards Link, bringing his sword up slowly over his  
head. "You're a fly I've been meaning to swat for years..." Ganondorf said with  
malice. "Goodbye, pesky boy-- AIGH!"

-  
------Ganondorf yelled as a hookshot stabbed his shoulder, Link jerking him  
closer to kick him in the face. The Gerudo King staggered back, the hookshot  
torn out of his now bleeding left shoulder as he glared at Link once more.  
"Why you little...!" he muttered angrily, clutching the wound as the young hylian  
laughed.  
------"I don't need a sword to bring you down." Link said, pulling out the Megaton  
Hammer and twirling it around before clutching it in his right hand. "Let's see  
how fast you are with a stab wound."  
------"I don't need speed when I have darkness on my side." Ganondorf said with  
a dark laughter, all the candles in the dimly lit room dying as a chilly gust of  
wind blew from out of nowhere, the gerudo's eerie laughter echoing along the walls  
of the tower as he vanished from sight. Link blinked, straining his eyes to try  
to see where he went, keeping his hammer ready to strike... He heard flames from  
behind him and quickly leapt forward to avoid a flaming blade, which slammed into  
the floor where he had stood mere moments before. Link stared back at Ganondorf's  
cruel gaze, the purple flames reflecting from his heartless eyes before all light  
was sucked from the room again. Lightning illuminated the room for a split second  
afterwards, showing no sign of Ganondorf whatsoever. "What the... Come out of  
hiding, coward!" Link shouted out, swinging his hammer around at random.  
------He heard another burst of flames, before feeling a searing heat in his  
right hand as the hammer was slashed out of his hands, the purple light of  
the flaming sword vanishing before the hammer hit the ground. Link yelled in pain  
as he clutched his scorched knuckles, before taking a few steps back against the  
wall of the room and looking around. He slid along the wall, knowing he was atleast  
safe from any further back attacks now. "Atleast I pummeled you fair and square!  
I didn't have to resort to cheap trickery!" Link shouted as he continued to carefully  
slide with his back to the walls, feeling around and realizing he was currently  
standing in front of one of the elaborate staiend glass windows - and then he heard  
Ganondorf begin growling from somewhere very close by...

-  
------Lightning flashed again, and for one sickening moment time seemed to slow  
down as Link stared at Ganondorf. The Gerudo king had a wicked smirk, his fist  
flaming as it flew towards Link's chest, and before Link could react he felt a  
fiery fist slam into him, sending him flying out of the window, shattering it  
as he plummeted from the tower into the pouring rain, shards of glass making little  
cuts all over his body as he fell. Ganondorf leapt from the window with a front flip,  
diving towards Link as he fell down the tall castle's tallest tower, everything  
still seeming to go in slow motion to Link as he felt a searing pain through his  
body. The Gerudo King burst into flames and came flying down faster still, slamming  
into Link and slamming him into the floating ground around the castle, the Gerudo  
King laughing heartlessly as he kneeled on Link's chest in a smoking one-foot-deep  
crator. Link coughed up a bit of blood, gasping for breath as he felt too stunned  
to do anything at the moment, his body searing in pain from the assault as the  
flames faded away.

------"Looks like I didn't need a sword to finish you off, either." Ganondorf  
said with a dry chuckle as he kept pressing his weight on Link's chest, Link  
crying in agony. "I've waited for this moment for too long."

------"Looks like you'll have to wait a little longer." taunted a feminine voice  
as a shadowy blade jutted through Ganondorf's gut. The Gerudo King gasped, looking  
down at the sword as it was slowly pulled out of him, before he was kicked off of  
Link. Ganondorf growled as he hit the ground, jumping up, clutching his bleeding  
stomach. "You... you wretched fish..." he snarled, lightning flashing behind him  
as he glared at Ruto, who was kneeling beside Link to give him a green potion of  
some sort. "You think .. a little stab wound is going to bring me down?" he yelled,  
as purple flames errupted from his stomach, searing his flesh to stop the bleeding  
and healing any damage done by the sword. Link coughed as he slowly staggered up,  
still covered in little cuts from the shattered glass but recovered from the most  
part as well.

------"Here's the sword!" Ruto said, passing the Shadow Blade to Link. "Lighter than  
it looks, surprisingly."  
------"So that's how he did it..." Link said, swinging the blade a few times, finding it  
to be lighter than a feather. "Thanks... but how did you get his 'precious sword' so  
easily?"  
------"I think he's dead." Ruto said, looking back at the tower. "He's lying in his  
own blood on the staircase, he's pretty bad off.."

------Ganondorf growled as he pulled his sword out again, slowly walking towards the  
pair, purple flames coursing through the blade.  
------"Ruto, take your cloak and get out of here!" Link said, pulling the shadow blade up  
and preparing for what would hopefully be the last duel with the gerudo king. The princess  
nodded and darted into the tower. "Ruto, where are you going?"

------Link quickly shifted his sword to block Ganondorf as he began swinging his flaming  
blade at the hylian, the two exchanging blows on eachother's swords as they began the  
fight anew. Ruto ran out of the tower with Shadow Link on her back, pulling out the orange  
rod to quickly repair the bridge she'd made earlier.  
------"You're going to save him after everything he's done to us?" Link said in disbelief  
as he continued to block Ganon's assault, moving his sword as swiftly as the Gerudo.  
------"He's helped us a great deal too!" Ruto said as she put the last block on the bridge.  
"The least we can do is give him a proper burial!"

------With that Ruto took off running across the bridge, shouting back; "And don't you DARE  
die here, Link! Or I'll kill you!"

-

-

------"Got yourself a vicious one, huh?" Ganondorf said with a smirk as he and Link continued  
slashing at one another, parrying each strike the other attempted. "Whatever happened to  
Zelda? It's unusual for the hero to rescue the princess then forget about her..."  
------"I haven't forgotten about her, we're just friends!" Link replied, sidestepping to  
narrowly avoid his arm getting gashed as he continued swinging at Ganondorf.  
------"It matters not anyway, you'll soon be dead, and the fish girl will join you for  
defying me." Ganondorf said with a wicked grin as he kicked Link, knocking the hylian  
to the ground and bringing his sword down on him, Link pulling up his shadowy blade just  
in time to hold back Ganon's sword, a few purple sparks flying around his face from the  
clashing blades. "The Oracle gave no bad tidings of this battle. There's nothing anyone  
can do to stop me!"  
------"What Oracle?" Link grunted out, straining to hold back Ganon's blade, which was  
a mere inch from his face.  
------"The one who prophecized you would thwart my last attempt." Ganondorf said, trying  
his hardest to shove his blade into Link's skull. "That's why I planted my seed in this  
realm just in case - by some miracle - she was right about a pesky Hylian boy stopping  
me, as a way to return upon his death. The Oracle set up the ritual herself."  
------"How do you know your not destined to forever be a loser?" Link said with a smirk,  
kicking Ganondorf off of him and rolling up as the Gerudo King landed on his feet behind  
him, Link turning around quickly to continue blocking Ganondorf's assault.  
------"It's common sense, boy! I thought you were smarter than this!" Ganondorf said with  
a sinister laugh, suddenly kicking Link in the jaw and sending him flying backwards off  
of the island. Link shot his hookshot up quickly into the edge of it, and began slowly  
pulling himself up as Ganondorf walked to the edge, glaring down at Link with a cruel  
smirk. "I've nearly tripled my power, while you, on the other hand, turned into a  
preteen again!"

------Link swung himself on the hookshot chain, kicking off of the wall of the floating  
island and flipping over Ganondorf, landing behind him and pulling out his sword to  
slash at his back, Ganondorf quickly turning to catch the edges of the blade between his  
thumb and fingers. "The Adventures of Link end here." he said, his right fist bursting into  
purple flames that coursed through his blade once more, preparing to finish off the  
hylian. Link leapt into the air just in time to avoid the stab, kicking off of Ganon's  
head and landing behind him, jumping back and reaching into his tunic to try to find  
another weapon. Ganondorf laughed darkly as he turned around, clutching his flaming  
purple blade in one hand and the long shadowy blade of Shadow Link in the other.  
------"Now I've got two swords and you're disarmed again!" Ganondorf said, his  
lips twisting into another cruel smirk. "What'll you do now?"  
------The Gerudo King dashed at Link, who ducked and slid around him as the Gerudo  
King slashed his swords where Link's neck had just been like a pair of scissors. The  
King turned to glare at Link, but his glare quickly faded to a look of horror as he  
was blinded by a bright light, an arrow firing off moments later, piercing him in  
the chest. "Urgh...! I... I refuse to be defeated by you again...!" Ganondorf  
yelled, jerking the arrow out of his bleeding chest, struggling for breath as the  
entire island fell back into the volcanic crator, covering it up, Ruto's orange bridge  
beginning to break apart and fall, orange blocks raining down from above around the  
two fighters. Ganondorf advanced on Link, about to swing his swords when another pair  
of arrows stuck through his wrists, making him drop his blades and fall to the ground  
in pain. Link kicked him in the chest, knocking the Gerudo King backwards before reaching  
down and grabbing the shadow blade and Ganon's sword, strapping the heavy blade of the  
Gerudo King to his back. "There's no way you're surviving this time, Ganondorf."  
------"You think I'll die... this easily...?" Ganondorf chuckled, coughing up some of  
his own blood. He held up one of his fists, one of the three triangles on his gauntlet  
shining. "Our destiny is bonded, Link... untill I have the power of the Tri-Force... I'll  
never rest..." The Gerudo King guffawed as his body burst into flames, vanishing before  
Link's eyes. The Hylian sighed as he watched Ganondorf vanished; sure, he should be  
dead. He's had an arrow to the heart, and one to each wrist. He just burst into flames  
before Link's very eyes and left nothing but scorched ground behind. There was no way  
any mortal would survive that... but somehow, Link had a sinking feeling this wasn't  
the last time he'd see his arch foe.

-

-

-

-

-

-

------Link continued trudging through the rainsoaked Hyrule Field. The storm clouds  
overhead had finally vanished to turn this into the first peaceful sunny day Hyrule has  
had in a long time. His tunic was stained with blood once more, both his own and that  
of Ganondorf, and he had three swords strapped to his back now; the long, shadowy blade  
of his evil twin, the larger, somehow more evil sword of Ganondorf, and the two broken  
pieces of Biggoron's Blade - Hopefully Ruto's Fire Staff could help to fix it up again.

------Link turned and started walking into the Kokiri Forest again. Everyone had agreed  
to meet back here should they be seperated, so he hoped Ruto made it here safely...

-

------His thoughts were interrupted, however, as he suddenly tripped and fell flat on  
his face in the muddy ground. A familiar psychopath cackled behind him as he felt  
someone jerk the Shadow sword away from him. "About time I got my baby back..."  
------"I thought you were dead..." Link said, spitting out a little mud as he stood up,  
turning to face his darker self once more.  
------"You won't be getting me out of your hair that easily." Shadow Link laughed, pulling  
off another of his bandages, showing a little scarring but no blood whatsoever. "Afraid  
your stuck with a psychotic brother for life."  
------"You're not here to cause more trouble I hope." Link said with a scowl. "I just took  
out Ganondorf, I could take you-"  
------"You used my sword too, didn't you?" Shadow Link said with a smirk. "Don't worry,  
I rather like you people. You're... amusing." the shadow said with a short cackle. "Besides,  
you owe me one still. How about telling me where that little Hylian princess is?"  
------"So you can murder her?" Link said, still looking warily at his black-clad twin.  
------"No, I've heard some women tend to like the bad guys." Shadow Link said with a grin.  
"And since you're dating Princess Mermaid..."  
------"I don't know where she is." Link said honestly, before continuing to walk into  
the Kokiri forests, ignoring his shadow, who stood there for a moment with a blank stare  
before yelling at Link.  
------"After everything I did for you, this is the thanks I get? I suppose I'll just  
find Princess Zelda myself!" Shadow Link shouted, before running into hyrule fields.  
"See if I invite you to the wedding!"

-

------Meanwhile, hovering high above the Kokiri Forests, an ominous black-robed figure  
with long, flowing red hair hid herself amongst the clouds to look down at the Kokiri  
villiage below. Her misty green eyes glared down at the people below as she watched a  
young Hylian boy in blue run into the city, the boy quickly being pounced by a white  
zoran girl as they embraced.

------"Enjoy your time of peace, foolish mortals." the woman said in an eerie,  
unnatural voice, her long black robe flowing gracefully in the wind with her hair  
as a faint green glow surrounded her, twirling three stones between her fingers,  
the hylian and zoran below appearing to be kissing now, though it was hard to tell  
from this altitude. "I forsee the end of the world... a greater evil than any the  
pureblood line of the gerudo king could ever create..."

-

-

-

-

-

End Chapter

-

-


	8. Prologue

Disclaimer: Must I really put this?  
It's the freaking prologue! sigh  
You already know I don't own Zelda anyway.

-

-

-

-

Prologue:

-

-

-

-

--------And so Hyrule finally enjoyed a time of peace for  
years to come. The remainder of Ganondorf's followers were hunted down and  
destroyed, and the damage done during his short-lived second reign was  
repaired. Unfortunately, when the island with Hyrule Castle landed, it landed  
the wrong way and the castle was backwards, but with a little help from some  
sorcerors, it was turned back the way it was.

--------Shadow Link left in search of Princess Zelda. Where this journey would  
take him, nobody knew, but he did manage to scare many children along the way.  
It seems old habits die hard, although he did manage to avoid killing anybody  
this time. Most assumed Ganondorf dead except for the very few who actually  
knew him. A few odd cloaked figures were captured by Hylian soldiers as cult  
followers of the Gerudo King, though when interrogated they spoke of nothing  
but cryptic messages about the apocalypse of Hyrule. Each one of them also  
had a strange marking burned into their wrists, an odd, catlike eye with fire-like  
markings around it. They also refused to answer any further questions as to how  
many more of them were hiding in the kingdom or what the odd markings on their  
wrists meant.

--------As for our young Hylian hero, well...

-

-

-

--------Deep bells rang through the Zoran caverns amidst the tropical music. It had  
been a few years since the second Ganondorf incident, and the crimes of murder Link  
comitted had been forgotten. As for his crimes against the Zorans, including several  
counts of kidnapping their heir to the throne, were all explained and dismissed by  
Ruto. After all, she was their princess, the daughter of the King, and we all know  
how hard headed the young zoran could be.

--------Dressed in a long white dress shimmering with blue tinted crystals, the  
future queen of the Zorans stood beside a Hylian who was for once in a dark suit  
instead of a usual tunic. The entire Zoran population was floating in the lake in the  
main room, looking up at a floating platform where the two stood before the Zoran King,  
who was reading something in an ancient Zoran language. A few guests from other races  
were invited, including the family of the Malon ranch and several Kokiri that were  
friends with Link. Though the young girl from the ranch didn't seem extraordinarily happy  
of the union, she looked practically cheerful compared to the Zoran populus. In case  
you somehow can't tell by now, the two were finally getting married, and though Ruto had  
convinced her father to perform the ceremony, the rest of her people weren't so enthusiastic  
as the bride and groom. This was the first case of two races mixing in Hyrule in centuries,  
and the majority of the Zoran people didn't like it one bit. Unfortunately for them, as the  
pair before the altar kissed, there was nothing more they could do about it but continue  
their hateful glares.

--------The crystal platform floating above the doman slowly lowered untill it was beside  
the main path leading out of the Domain. A few people were cheering at the pair and throwing  
rice at them, though the vast majority was silent in annoyance. Link sweeped Ruto into his  
arms and took off running, both of them laughing as they ran out of the Domain. Link leapt  
at the falls when they reached the exit, holding Ruto securely in his arms as they flew past  
the cascading white water, the roaring of the falls filling their ears, the heavy water pounding  
against them not seeming to even phase them - after all, the pair had been in and out of  
this passageway for years. Link looked down to prepare to land on the archway over the river  
as usual, but in a flash of deja vu, he saw someone there waiting for him, clad in pitch black  
armor with a golden shining Tri-Force emblem on the center.

-

--------Link landed right in front of the tall redhead, who seemed a little shorter than  
Link remembered now that he was an adult again. The Hylian Hero set Ruto down on her feet  
and drew his blade as Ruto hissed, her fingernails extending like claws. "Garland..." the  
newlyweds said at the same time. The Gerudo man smirked, clapping his hands slowly, no  
longer a demented black skeleton - he looked the same way he did when they had first met,  
although slightly older.  
--------"There's no need for that, boy." the Gerudo laughed. "I'm here to congradulate  
you two - it is my duty as king and ambassator of my people, after all, to see the marriage of  
the princess of our closest allied nation."  
--------"Cut the crap, Garland, I know you're up to something." Ruto said as Link put away  
Biggoron's blade - for those of you sitting there, wondering why Link brought swords to a  
wedding, well, if you had as many enemies as Link, you would, too.  
--------"Why would you say a thing like that, princess?" Garland said, feigning a look of  
sadness as if her words hurt his cold heart. "I just wanted to have a pleasant chat with  
the both of you before you got too wrapped up in your honeymoon..." he smirked.  
--------"Bug off, you're the last person I want to see alive and well." she said, grabbing  
Link's hand and beginning to drag him away down the path beside the Zora's River.  
--------"Fine, just walk off. I'll get by somehow..." Garland said, trying to sound like  
he was hurt. "I'll get by somehow... I'm sure there's a nice rock somewhere to keep me  
company..."

-

--------Ruto stopped all of a sudden and turned to glare at Garland, who returned her an  
amused smirk.  
--------"Yes, go find a nice rock to talk to." Ruto said, continuing to glare at the  
new king of the Gerudo. "And leave us alone."  
--------"You're too busy for your old buddy?" Garland said with a laugh.  
--------"Let me put it this way, 'Stryker,'" she said with disgust, "if you get so much as  
within eyesight of us while we're away, I'll kill you."  
--------"Stryker?" Link said, looking back at Garland in confusion. "But he's.."  
--------"Come on, Link," Ruto said, seeming to forget her current state of anger as she  
dragged Link some more. "it'll take the whole day just to get there as it is..."  
--------"Have fun you two." Garland said, continuing to laugh as he walked into Zora's  
domain. "Have fun while it lasts..."

-

-

-

To Be Continued

-

-


End file.
